Episode 5 Real Rescues


Episode 5

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Whether in the air, on the sea or on the roads, the emergency services are all trained for the same thing -

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to save lives. It can mean working in the most difficult conditions.

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Tonight, we see how tough it can get. This is Real Rescues.

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Tonight, a cargo ship is listing dangerously in the Channel.

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Twenty crew need to be airlifted to safety through a forest of masts in a near gale.

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As hazards go, quite substantial.

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Gary's the winchman, and he could have become impaled, become trapped in there.

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A car crashes into a tree.

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Paramedics have to work fast to save the driver, who suffered horrific leg injuries.

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I was worried that suddenly we were going to have quite a catastrophic haemorrhage

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and Ian would then go into shock from it.

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And 93-year-old Lily, the retired dinner lady, spills the beans

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about the TV star who wouldn't eat up.

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He was a little horror.

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When it came to greens, "No, thank you," he said.

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The first rescue we're featuring on tonight's programme

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is among the most daring the air-sea rescue services have carried out.

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It's the story of the cargo ship the Ice Prince, its crew of 20, and what happened off the south coast,

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when severe gale force winds and high seas shifted its cargo of timber.

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It's growing dark. The wind's getting up and the seas are looking stormy on the south coast.

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Just the kind of conditions to make a coastguard's heart sink.

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The shift's only just changed at the Brixham control room, when the emergency channel comes to life.

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Pan-Pan is a distress call used by ships.

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Thirty nine miles off the south Devon coast, the Greek-registered Ice Prince is listing badly.

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Its 5,000-ton timber cargo has shifted, forcing the ship dangerously off balance.

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Weather conditions on that night were force six to seven winds.

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The worst case scenario is obviously that the list will increase,

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and the vessel is in danger of capsizing and turning turtle.

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I would imagine that the men would have been quite scared.

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I know I would have been.

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The 20-strong crew can be seen here huddling at the highest point of the 328 ft vessel.

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The Coastguard in Brixham know a ship can recover from a 25 degree list.

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But with a heavy load of timber, that's not easy.

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So they're preparing for the worst.

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The first job is getting a precise location.

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They found the ship. But there's no time to waste, as there are reports already of injuries.

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We heard one of the crewmen had sustained what the master thought was a broken leg.

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There was no question then. That casualty needed to come off straight away.

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The air and sea rescue services respond immediately.

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Lifeboats head out from Torbay and Salcombe to the ship, now listing at 40 degrees.

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Coastguard helicopter India Juliet is scrambled from its base in Portland. Wincher Pat is on board.

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En route, obviously the weather conditions were such they were, we were listening to the radios

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and could pick up the fact that things were going downhill and the situation was worsening.

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As soon as we got visual of the left hand of the ship, its upper deck

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was actually underwater then, so she was listing all the way over.

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It would be very hazardous for anybody to move on the deck due to the angle on the deck.

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So we raised the subject of removing all non-essential personnel.

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It's a lot easier to take persons off in a controlled situation,

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as opposed to when it becomes real dire need.

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Churning seas, crosswinds and a listing ship is every sailor's worst nightmare.

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Will the team manage to bring it to an end?

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We'll be back to find out.

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An emergency call has come in requesting more police back-up at a serious road accident.

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PC Nick Lacey has to leave his desk and get out on the road as quickly as possible.

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Fire and ambulance crews are already working at the scene,

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but the call has been made for a police escort for the ambulance.

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That only happens when the injuries are very serious.

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As he speeds to the scene, Nick's receiving regular updates.

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Time is ticking by. Nick knows the area well.

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It's not far now, but the roads are not the easiest to navigate at speed.

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Just at the bottom of the hill here there are a series of S-bends.

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-He negotiates the bends and he's there.

-There it is.

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-Three-zero, state six.

-The road ahead is completely crammed with emergency vehicles.

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He's made it in time to see the seriously injured man being carried into the ambulance.

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Doc... Do you need an escort?

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Yes.

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Only one car is involved in the accident, a silver people carrier.

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It appears to have careered off the road and into a tree.

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The damage to the front of the car is extensive.

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A woman from the nearby village was driving behind.

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She pulled over and immediately went to help the driver, Ian Encke.

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Two men were on their mobile phones, calling the emergency services,

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I assumed. Another lady as well.

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But as Ian was on his own in the car, I thought that I should go and see to him. He didn't look too good.

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There was quite a lot of blood on his face and hands and arms.

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I was concerned that he was going to go to sleep, because he was so grey.

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He was losing all his colour.

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I was asking him where he lived and what he did for a living.,

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and what he'd been doing earlier on in the day.

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I suppose I was just wanting to keep him awake and keep things

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as normal as possible in the circumstances.

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Beccy kept Ian company until the emergency services arrived.

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Once there, they worked quickly and efficiently to get him into the ambulance.

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The sooner Ian gets treatment, the better his outcome.

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The ambulance is ready to go, so Nick sets off again at speed through the countryside.

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Get over.

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Basically trying to clear a bit, like a ship - clear your way through the water,

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and leave something a little bit calm behind you.

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It's probably less than a mile now.

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The essence of doing an ambulance run is generally they want a smooth,

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controlled run, where they don't have to do too much heavy braking or acceleration.

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It's really all about planning.

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It's not so much about being a really great driver.

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A professional job well done. The emergency services have freed Ian

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from the wreckage of his car and got him to hospital in under 10 minutes.

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Now it's up to the medics to do their work.

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The police can only wait and see what kind of investigation this will turn out to be.

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In the turbulent waters of the English Channel, the crew

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of the stricken Ice Prince are desperately huddled on the ship's deck, awaiting rescue.

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Coastguard helicopter India Juliet is on scene.

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Winchman Gary Mitchell is about to be dropped a staggering 130ft

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down to the listing deck.

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And that'll be no easy task. Between India Juliet and the deck there's a forest of masts.

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As hazards go,

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it was quite substantial. If the winch had caught on those,

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it could have parted them. But Gary as the winchman,

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if he'd swung into them, he could have impaled himself, become trapped in there.

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If he'd still been attached to the end of the wire, he would have been pulled in both directions.

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Gary successfully made it onto the slippery deck.

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With enormous skill he's navigated the masts of the pitching ship.

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The tremendous winds forced Gary to move men down to a lower deck,

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much nearer to the crashing waves.

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Terrifying as this is,

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it's the best way to avoid the line becoming tangled in the masts.

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It probably would be a scary place - one minute they're looking at

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black sky, the next minute they're looking at foam and water.

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Gary, he actually physically had to brace himself in there to prevent himself falling out.

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The harness is dropped down the guideline.

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And two by two, 12 of the men are laboriously lifted from the listing deck.

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They are suspended on the end of the wire for a reasonable period of time.

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Obviously with the black ocean beneath them, I can imagine it would be quite terrifying for them.

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They were getting some wide eyes. But once we got them inside the aircraft,

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they were very appreciative of the fact that they were safe.

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-They were quite relieved.

-Then, a problem.

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Hovering in these conditions for a long time is using up a lot of fuel.

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India Juliet is now running dangerously low.

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The crew need to be sure they've got enough to get back to base.

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But heading back now would mean leaving eight terrified crewmen behind.

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It's a tough call.

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It's really got to be thought about carefully, and it will always be the last option.

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On that night the safety of the majority definitely outweighed leaving the guys behind.

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Plus the fact they had lifeboats alongside anyway, so there was always

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the option for them to actually carry on and perform the rescue themselves.

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So, the lifeboat does take on the rescue.

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Over an hour and three quarters they make 50 approaches to the ship, and get the eight men onto the lifeboat.

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A rescue that's to earn the coxon a silver award for gallantry.

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In the early hours of the next day, the Torbay lifeboat

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arrives back at port, its cargo of men exhausted but safe.

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Talking to some of the lifeboat crew this morning,

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they say the weather conditions were the worst they've ever faced during a rescue in 35 years.

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Just look at the damage done to the bow, to give you some idea of

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what was going on last night during that incredibly successful rescue of 20 sailors in gale force winds.

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It's been a traumatic night for the crew.

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They're all relieved and thankful.

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They take me by helicopter. They rescue me.

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When you saw the helicopter, what were your thoughts?

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Erm...

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Pleased to see them?

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It's a night that will remain etched on the minds of these men for a long time to come.

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But they're onshore and safe.

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The plight of their ship is still in the balance.

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Her load is becoming more precarious, and the list of the ship is steadily increasing.

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As we'll be seeing, she's now in the hands of the salvage teams.

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But they can't work without the emergency services.

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It's 6am, and the day has not yet broken.

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Jane Peters is on duty with a colleague in the ambulance.

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They're rushing to an elderly woman's home.

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We're going to a 93-year-old female that's fallen.

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It appears that police have had to break in.

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That's all the information we've got so far.

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There's not a lot of traffic so early in the day, and they're on the scene quickly.

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Hello?

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Rapid response paramedic Henry Gill is already there when they arrive.

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-Lily?

-Yes, dear?

-Hello.

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-It's the ambulance.

-Oh yes, dear.

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-Can you see me all right?

-Yes, dear.

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-You can, can you?

-Yes, thank you.

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Henry briefs Jane on what he's managed to find out so far.

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She's fallen back on this.

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She managed to drag herself there.

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She thought she'd only been there for a few hours, but she's been there all night. She's quite cold.

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Very bruised in this area.

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-What, in the middle?

-Yeah, right in the middle.

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Jane takes over, but she has to speak up because her patient, Lily Hunt, is hard of hearing.

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Is it just your back that hurts?

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Yes. I fell on my back.

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Did you? Oh, dear.

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No wonder Lily's cold.

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She's been lying there the whole night and only pressed her emergency alarm this morning.

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We need to get you out of here to take you for a check-up.

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-Oh, all right.

-OK?

-Yes.

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I'm quite sure that once they've checked you over, they'll send you back home again.

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Oh, that is lovely, dear.

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Because you're only a young lady, aren't you?

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-Eh?

-You're only a young lady, aren't you?

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Hopefully!

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Jane's sure Lily has no significant injuries.

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However, after a night on the floor she'll still feel stiff and achey.

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So getting her up won't be easy.

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Right Lil, give me this arm.

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I know it's going to be a bit sore, darling.

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One, two, three...

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-Let me sit up.

-There's a chair.

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There's a chair there, darling.

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-Now, with Lily more comfortable, they can take her to the ambulance.

-You're going up in the world.

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But she's still very cold from her night on the floor.

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So you don't normally shake like this then?

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No, I don't.

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Here...

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If I thought I was going to have this, I'd have had a perm.

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-Oh, we should have brushed your hair for you, shouldn't we?

-Eh?

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We should have brushed your hair for you, shouldn't we?

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-Oh, dear.

-You look lovely though.

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Lily was a Cockney lady that lived in London.

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She obviously had a lot of history

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behind her, being 93 years of age.

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She was just... I could have dealt with her all day long.

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-Let's feel your hands. Are they any warmer?

-Yeah.

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Not shaking so much now?

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No.

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When she fell, Lily bruised her back.

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But now she's feeling a new pain in her chest.

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-Oh...

-Is your back sore, is it?

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-It's sore, here.

-Is it?

-Oh...

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Do you suffer with your chest, then?

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-No. No.

-Is it a pain or is it just...?

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-It's a pain.

-Is it?

-Yeah.

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Jane decides to hook Lily up to the ECG monitor in case her pain's an indication of a heart problem.

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Do you want to cover your arms up, darling, keep warm.

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-OK. Thank you.

-There.

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-That's not too bad at all, Lily, actually.

-Isn't it?

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-No.

-No. Oh, good.

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-All the squiggly lines are doing what they should be doing.

-Yeah.

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Now Lily's feeling better she's got a few stories she wants to share with Jane,

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including the time she worked as a school dinner lady.

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And you know who was in my class, Noel Edmonds.

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I was going to say to you when you did...

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Noel Edmonds.

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-He was a little horror.

-Was he?

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-When it came to greens...

-Yeah.

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"No thank you," he says.

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I used to say to him, "Yes, please."

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In the finish he got away with it,

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he never ate his greens. Never ate his greens.

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They were lovely days, I thoroughly enjoyed it with the children.

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I was just amazed by her. For 93 years of age,

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a really lovely old lady.

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They arrive at the hospital and Lily can be given a thorough check-up.

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We'll find out later how she gets on.

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Back in one of the world's busiest shipping lanes, a new day has dawned on the stricken Ice Prince.

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All 20 crew have been rescued but the ship's still adrift,

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40 miles off the coast of Devon.

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She's listing at a perilous 45-degree angle.

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What happens next is up to the salvage experts.

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What do you think the chances are of a successful salvage mission?

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Considering the weather, 50-50.

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-So...

-Good luck.

-Thank you very much, OK.

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Coastguard helicopter India Juliet is back in action again

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as the salvage teams head out to try to get on board the stricken ship.

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The idea is to assess the list and determine if it's safe enough to get a line on her from a tug boat.

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So you'd want to put a man down on the deck

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to receive a line from the tug, is that right?

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Yes.

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They lower a man onto the stricken ship, no easy task in the strong winds.

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Now he has to clamber up the slippery, sloping deck.

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He makes it to the top but signals to the salvage experts

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on board the helicopter that it's too dangerous to risk a tow line.

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An attempt was made by a salvage tug to get a line on board so they could take the vessel in tow.

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This failed and the vessel continue to drift in a north-easterly direction.

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Not only that, the inevitable has happened - all the ship's cargo of timber has been lost to sea.

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Because of the direction of the wind,

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it was obvious it was going to end up on the beaches of the south coast.

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It's transformed the landscape.

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Every beach along a ten-mile stretch of coast is covered in huge wood piles.

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Meanwhile, out in the English Channel, the battle's over.

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The Ice Prince has given herself up to the sea.

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The cargo ship that got into difficulties along the south-west coast on Sunday night has sunk.

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The Ice Prince went down in very rough weather around 26 miles south-east of Portland Bill.

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It may be the end for the Ice Prince but its lost cargo of timber is going to present more problems.

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This time for the fire service.

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Nick Lacey is at the scene of a terrible road accident where this car smashed into a tree.

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It was being driven by a local man, Ian Encke, who's now in hospital

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with what's feared to be life-threatening injuries.

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It's the only vehicle involved.

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Nobody knows why it happened.

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What you're looking for is freshly disturbed earth, things like tyre marks.

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If we look that way you can see quite a nice, tidy tyre mark going over the verge.

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-He's not gone left, he's just carried straight on.

-That's right, absolutely.

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Whatever the cause of the accident, all thoughts are with the driver.

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Then the call comes through to Sergeant Wayne Voller.

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I've just had an update.

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The injuries that we initially thought were life-threatening are no longer life-threatening.

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They're serious, very serious. He's got a badly broken leg and ankle

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but he's not going to die.

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So there's going to be no potential investigation for the coroner, so we're just going to clear it up now.

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His life is out of danger but the driver has suffered terrible injuries.

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Paramedic Frank Minchell was the first to him.

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It was very obvious at the time that he was trapped in the vehicle.

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He was having a great deal of pain from his legs.

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That can be quite a positive sign, initially, because if you're

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getting pain, you're getting feeling down there but the longer it goes on, the more toxins and clots that are

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building up in the bloodstream, the more danger to the patient.

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If the initial injuries don't kill you outright,

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it's purely preventable things that can then do it afterwards.

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So it's us as a medical service to try to lessen the extent

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of further damage going on.

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Ian could also recall most of the horror of the accident.

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I was driving home from work, and, erm...

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Perfectly normal, a little bit tired, not very.

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As I came towards home, a few bends away from the village,

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I blanked out.

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I had a vague recollection I felt woozy - and a feeling of being on a rollercoaster.

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Then suddenly I came to and about six foot in front of me was a tree.

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Both legs were completely trapped.

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My left leg was trapped by the steering column which had moved across to the left.

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My right leg was trapped against the steering column by the side of the car

0:21:590:22:03

and both legs were pushed up with my knees almost against my chest.

0:22:030:22:07

As we him, Ian says something like, "Oh, hell, my heel's detached."

0:22:070:22:13

When I felt down there you could see that his heel was hanging in two pieces right down to his foot.

0:22:130:22:18

The floor of the van had cut through my heel bone and cut right the way down to the instep.

0:22:180:22:24

I saw that falling away. It's amazing what you do under the circumstances.

0:22:240:22:27

I said, "My foot's falling off." I reached down and held it on.

0:22:270:22:31

I was worried that suddenly we were going to have a catastrophic

0:22:310:22:34

haemorrhage in there and Ian would then go into shock from it.

0:22:340:22:38

So I quickly grabbed a pressure dressing to pull the pieces

0:22:380:22:41

back together to ensure there was no sudden blood being freed.

0:22:410:22:44

The basics doctor was there to assist and then transferred to hospital as quickly as possible.

0:22:440:22:50

Ian fractured his left leg as well as suffering the horrific injuries to his right foot.

0:22:500:22:55

In hospital, his condition worsens before it gets better.

0:22:550:22:58

I had a pulmonary embolism and a clot on the lung

0:22:580:23:02

within two days of arriving in hospital.

0:23:020:23:04

That prevented them doing the next stage of the operation, going in to see what to do to fix the foot.

0:23:040:23:10

If the blood supply didn't recover then there was a risk of losing the foot.

0:23:100:23:13

So, it was great to be alive, but it was a scary prognosis.

0:23:130:23:18

It takes four weeks of intensive hospital treatment to save Ian's foot.

0:23:180:23:23

During that time the doctors also discover what caused the accident.

0:23:230:23:27

One of the things they discovered when I was in hospital

0:23:270:23:30

was I was severely anaemic and had been so for over six months.

0:23:300:23:34

In hindsight, I can see some of the evidence for that and that is almost definitely the reason I passed out.

0:23:340:23:40

Forty miles off the Devon coast,

0:23:450:23:48

the coastguard and RNLI have saved 20 sailors from the doomed Ice Prince.

0:23:480:23:54

Its timber load has become salvage, washed up on the beaches of West Sussex,

0:23:540:23:58

but the ill-fated ship and its lost cargo has one more challenge for the emergency services.

0:23:580:24:05

It's 1am on a Sunday morning in February,

0:24:070:24:09

a month after the mid-Channel rescue, and West Sussex Fire Service

0:24:090:24:13

are called out to an out-of-control bonfire on Worthing beach.

0:24:130:24:18

On the morning of the call we weren't totally surprised, we knew roughly

0:24:180:24:21

what we were going to, and as we approached the call we could see

0:24:210:24:25

it was as we thought and it was going to be a huge bonfire on the beach.

0:24:250:24:30

One of the giant wood piles is now alight.

0:24:340:24:38

The wood may be wet but not so wet it wouldn't ignite.

0:24:380:24:42

There was nothing spontaneous about this fire.

0:24:420:24:45

Someone deliberately set fire to enable that fire to start.

0:24:450:24:49

Once it starts going, once the heat builds up,

0:24:490:24:51

then even wet wood burns quickly

0:24:510:24:53

and it self-perpetuates until we get to a stage where we have a huge fire,

0:24:530:24:58

flames licking up into the sky.

0:24:580:25:00

Initially our first thoughts were - was anyone involved in the fire itself,

0:25:020:25:06

because you get people that will be down there, sleeping or whatever.

0:25:060:25:10

We checked - there was nobody there.

0:25:100:25:13

Our next priority was for the beach huts and so forth

0:25:130:25:15

because you never know quite what's in these beach huts. There could be people's possessions, gas cylinders.

0:25:150:25:20

But the wind is in their favour and is blowing the flames towards

0:25:200:25:23

the sea, stopping the fire from spreading.

0:25:230:25:25

If the wind had been coming from the prevailing south-westerly

0:25:250:25:28

as it normally does, the rest of the piles would have been involved as well.

0:25:280:25:32

It's not just the wind which is helping the firefighters -

0:25:320:25:36

a digger nearby had been used in clearing the beach of timber.

0:25:360:25:39

Having that on site was a great assistance to us

0:25:390:25:42

being able to move the unburnt timber so we could finally get to the timber that was burning.

0:25:420:25:47

By using the digger to remove the wood from the path of the fire,

0:25:470:25:52

the firefighters are beginning to win the battle.

0:25:520:25:54

This fire could not have started on its own.

0:25:540:25:57

An arsonist will never consider their actions.

0:25:570:26:00

They would consider the fact that somebody else, somewhere, may be suffering because of their actions.

0:26:000:26:05

In total the fire needed eight pumps to bring it under control and kept firefighters busy for 12 hours.

0:26:050:26:12

The emergency services worked very well.

0:26:120:26:15

Along with the local emergency planning authorities, the beach is

0:26:150:26:18

now clear and everything's been moved and a satisfactory outcome achieved.

0:26:180:26:23

So it's finally over, more than a month after it began.

0:26:280:26:33

During that time, the RNLI and coastguard saved 20 crew from a listing ship in a Force 9 storm.

0:26:330:26:39

The ship was lost to the sea

0:26:390:26:41

and a wood slick washed up on the beaches of the south coast.

0:26:410:26:45

It was left to the Sussex fire crews to play out the last act

0:26:450:26:49

of the Ice Prince drama on the beaches of Worthing.

0:26:490:26:52

All part of the service provided by the men and women of our rescue teams.

0:26:520:26:57

Let's catch up with some of the other people who featured in tonight's programme.

0:26:580:27:02

Lily Hunt, the 93-year-old woman who spent the night on the floor after falling, escaped with a few bruises.

0:27:020:27:09

She's now living closer to her daughter in a residential home where she's recovering well.

0:27:090:27:14

She's had flowers from Noel Edmonds and a note saying he now eats his sprouts.

0:27:140:27:19

Ian Encke, the driver of the car which hit a tree, is back on his feet, but only just.

0:27:210:27:26

He owes his life to the emergency services

0:27:260:27:29

and is also very grateful to Beccy Ward for helping him directly after the accident happened.

0:27:290:27:36

I wasn't the only person there, it's important to say that.

0:27:360:27:38

There were lots of other people in the background

0:27:380:27:41

and people making sure the emergency services were on their way.

0:27:410:27:45

I just dealt with it in a way that anybody would, really.

0:27:450:27:49

I'm sure he would do exactly the same for me in those circumstances.

0:27:490:27:52

I was incredibly grateful for what she did.

0:27:520:27:55

It's only when something like this happens that you realise how good people are.

0:27:550:27:58

But Beccy particularly because she was there at the beginning

0:27:580:28:02

and made it a lot easier for me to handle the time it took for the emergency services.

0:28:020:28:07

I'm sure it would have seemed a lot longer without somebody there,

0:28:070:28:09

talking to me and checking I was OK, and saying, "You look all right",

0:28:090:28:13

even if I didn't.

0:28:130:28:15

Every time you see a blue light or hear a siren the emergency services are on their way

0:28:150:28:21

to help someone in distress.

0:28:210:28:23

Join me again when we go out on call for more Real Rescues.

0:28:230:28:27

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

0:28:390:28:41

E-mail [email protected]

0:28:410:28:44

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