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Dramatic rescue at Fahan
Creek 01.10.08
by Liam Porter, Inishowen Independent
CALLS have been made to have signs erected warning
of the dangers of walking on mud flats at Fahan
after a person got stuck in the mud flats there for
the second time in the past few weeks.
The calls came after a man had to be winched free
from the mud by a helicopter on Saturday afternoon
after he had got stuck in the mud.
Speaking to the Inishowen Independent yesterday
George O’Hagan, a Lough Swilly Lifeboat crew member
who was in Fahan at the time, said the man had a
lucky escape.
“He had walked out, maybe 100 yards from the beach
when he got stuck in the mud. I was working at a
boat in Fahan when a man delivering oil told me
there was somebody stuck. I went across and realised
that it would be dangerous to try to go out so I
called the coastguard and suggested that perhaps a
helicopter should be sent.”
Mr. O’Hagan said a number of men had already
gathered to try to help the man and as well as the
helicopter, the Gardai, fire crew and ambulance were
on the scene very quickly.
“It probably took around forty minutes for the
helicopter to get to the scene and at that stage the
man was safely winched out of the mud and brought to
the shore where he was then taken by ambulance to
hospital in Letterkenny.” |
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The local RNLI man said
all those who were on the scene on the day were
there to provide assistance to the unfortunate man
who had been stuck, but added that the man was lucky
that there were people around.
“I suppose one of the big messages to go out from
something like this is that if a person gets in
difficulty they should use the 999 number and call
the emergency services. The quicker the emergency
services can respond the more likely it will be that
there is a successful outcome to any rescue,” he
said.
Mr. O’Hagan also agreed that signage in the area
might help prevent further incidents in the area.
“It’s never really been a problem before but when
there are two such incidents in the space of a
number of weeks then perhaps it is time for somebody
to consider a few signs to warn people of the danger
of walking on the mud.”
At the end of August a fourteen year-old local boy,
Stephen Doherty, raised the alarm to prompt a rescue
when a man got into difficulties in mud flats at
Fahan Creek. |
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