Porthcawl’s RNLI Lifeboat was launched at 3pm Easter Monday to rescue a reported 5 casualties, two of whom were children, reported in the water off Ogmore River, Ogmore by Sea. When they arrived on scene there were 8 people in total that were rescued and brought back to the lifeboat station to waiting paramedics.
Porthcawl lifeboat, Rose of the Shires, was launched with senior helmsman Tim Morgan at the helm. Tim said, ‘they were following a report of two young children in the water but when they located the casualties there were actually six would be rescuers also. Three were surfers who had gone to the assistance the others. Once back at the RNLI station three adults required medical attention along with the children for the affects of hyperthermia’.
From the reports received there was a 10 year old child in the water who was drifting out of his depth, his older sister went to call him back ashore and she also got into difficulties too. The children’s mother ran to their assistance and was joined by two males who saw the incident. Both David Gibson from Pencoed and his friend from Clydach Rhondda swam with the mother. David said, ‘I immediately felt the strong current even though the sea was calm. I came ashore and quickly picked up an inflatable dinghy to assist in the rescue. I watched the drift of the children and ran across the beach to shorten the paddle out’.
Whilst the three adult rescuers attempted to swim and paddle out they were joined by three surfers, David Sutton and James French, both 19 and from Barry along with Wes Markham 20 from Rumney Cardiff. David said, ‘we used our surf boards to try and get the children and adults out of the sea as they were getting very cold even though the weather was good the sea is still very cold. Fortunately we had our wetsuits on so didn’t suffer the same effects of the cold.
RNLI Lifeboat Operations Manager at Porthcawl, Philip Missen MBE said, ‘this was an extremely serious incident that could so easily have resulted with a far more serious outcome. We were paged early in this incident and with a calm sea we were on scene within minutes. All casualties were released following paramedic checks’.
Within minutes of returning to Porthcawl, Rose of the Shires was called to two further incidents. First was for a male who fell from the breakwater into the sea and the second to assist Porthcawl Coastguard Unit in searching for a missing eight year old last seen near the water at Sandy Bay. Both incidents were closed with satisfactory outcomes.
