Incident 33. Our team was called, along with all other Mountain Rescue teams in our region, to assist in the evacuation of part of Falmouth due to a WW2 bomb found near the dock area. We were initially called on Monday evening, though the evacuation was postponed to Wednesday. The delay allowed the team examining the bomb time to set a final cordon size and for the police to put some firm plans in place for the arrival of volunteers from Mountain Rescue, Cave Rescue, CoastGuard, and a large number of police officers. The cordon was initially set at 300m, and was potentially going to be set at 1400m, which would have included well over 1000 properties. Thankfully it was reduced to 755m which only included around 300 properties, meaning a much smaller impact on the community.
Members of our team set off at 07:00 on Wednesday for Falmouth, arriving at 09:00 where we registered and enjoyed catering provided by the Rapid Relief Team. We were briefed on the plan that had been put together in the preceding days and deployed at 10:00, with all teams heading out to their designated areas to start the evacuation process. Everybody we met was friendly, and kept in good spirits during the disruption. All teams were back at the staging area at around 13:00, and the police commander in charge confirmed that the bomb had been moved out to sea, and we were stood down. We returned to our Rescue Centre at about 16:00, in plenty of time for the evening’s training session!.
