Volunteer crew members from STATION 25 - Hartbeespoort Dam, STATION 37 - Jeffreys Bay, STATION 20 - Shelly Beach and STATION 14, Plettenberg Bay responded to incidents around the country.
The incidents occurred as follows:STATION 25 - Hartbeespoort Dam: Arthur Crewe, NSRI Hartbeespoort Dam station commander, said:At 19h22, Wednesday, 25th December, NSRI Hartbeespoort Dam duty crew launched sea rescue craft to commence a search for a local 27 year old man missing in the vicinity of Schoemansville after reportedly falling out of a ski-boat that was underway at the time.A Police Dive Unit joined the search.Only a life-jacket that the man had been wearing when he went overboard was located and no sign of the missing man was found.NSRI Hartbeespoort Dam will assist the SA Police Services and a Police Dive Unit in an ongoing search on Thursday.Earlier in the day, at 14h11, NSRI assisted a casualty boat and her crew after their ski-boat got trapped in Hyacinth on Hartbeespoort Dam.A sea rescue craft launched and negotiated dense Hyacinth on the dam to reach the casualty boat and following extensive efforts the boat was freed from the dense Hyacinth and the boat and her crew were brought to safety.STATION 37 - Jeffreys Bay: Michael van den Bergh, NSRI Jeffreys Bay station commander, said:At 15h03, Wednesday, 25th December, NSRI Jeffreys Bay duty crew noticed a commotion at Pelsrus Beach, in front of our NSRI rescue base.On investigation we found an 11 year old male and a 13 year old female had been assisted from the surf by family members and both were suffering non-fatal drowning symptoms and both were in serious conditions.NSRI medics initiated medical treatmentKouga Law Enforcement and Guardmed ambulance services responded.The patients were taken into the care of paramedics and have been transported to hospital in stable but serious conditions by Guardmed ambulance.Both are expected to fully recover.At 21h43, NSRI Jeffreys Bay duty crew responded to Kabeljous, Jeffreys Bay, where there were eye-witness reports of 2 red distress flares sighted seaward.During an extensive search it was determined that the flares had been fired from land and no vessels or persons were in distress.Sea Rescue is making a special appeal to members of the public not to fire flares other than in an emergency. Firing a flare because it has expired is dangerous and wastes hundreds of hours of Sea Rescue volunteers time searching for someone who is not in difficulty.Laser beams have previously been a huge danger to helicopter crews when they are directed at the aircraft. For the first time laser beams have been shone at Sea Rescue vessels engaged in a search. This completely disrupted the search endangering the lives of our volunteers and those who we were looking for. Please never shine lasers at anyone and particularly not at operational rescue services at night.STATION 20 - Shelly Beach: Jeremiah Jackson, NSRI Shelly Beach station commander, said:At 10h33, Tuesday, 24th December, NSRI Shelly Beach duty crew launched the sea rescue craft Spirit of Dawn and Med-Evac ambulance services launched their rescue RIB (Rigid Inflatable Boat) God’s Grace to assist in a crew transfer off of a commercial boat suffering 1 motor mechanical failure at the backline off Shelly Beach.During the operation an adult male crewman of a commercial boat went overboard in the surfline and was rescued onto Med-Evac’s rescue craft Gods Grace and brought safely to shore and he was not injured.After crew and passengers were taken off the commercial boat that suffered motor mechanical failure the casualty boat was towed through the surf by NSRI’s sea rescue craft Spirit of Dan and brought safely onto the beach without incident.NSRI commend the assistance of Med-Evac ambulance services in the operation.STATION 14 - Plettenberg Bay: Marc Rodgers, NSRI Plettenberg Bay station commander, said:At 12h38, Tuesday, 24th December, NSRI Plettenberg Bay duty crew launched sea rescue craft and responded to reports of a 19 year old male with his hand trapped under a rock that rolled onto his right hand at Robberg Nature Reserve hiking trail.WC Government Health EMS, SA National Park rangers and the EMS/AMS Skymed rescue helicopter were placed on alert.On NSRI arriving on the scene a crew hiked to the casualty finding that a friend of the teenager had rolled the rock off the hand and the teenager was medically treated and secured to a Stokes basket stretcher and hiked to the shoreline where our floating stretcher was used to fl9at the casualty through the surf to our sea rescue craft where he was loaded onto the sea rescue craft.In a stable condition, he was brought to the NSRI rescue base aboard the sea rescue craft and family transported him to hospital for further medical treatment.On Wednesday we received news that the teenager was discharged from hospital and he is making a good recovery.
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TO REPORT A SEA RESCUE EMERGENCY DIAL 112 FROM A CELLPHONE