We’re proud of you, Pete!
SpanSet Instructor takes part in successful rescue of injured caver.
Pete Knight is a Height Safety Trainer at SpanSet, as well as a cave and mine exploration Instructor and Technical Advisor to the outdoor industry. Like some others on the team at SpanSet he also enjoys caving in his spare time.
Pete was out with his local caving club on Saturday (6th) when he started to hear on the grapevine of a big incident in a cave in South Wales. Pete has been a member of the Derbyshire Cave Rescue Organisation (DCRO) for several years, more recently becoming one of the team’s Controllers. On a few occasions in the past, a rescue has been so complex or long that it requires a team from one region to request support from another. As Pete went to bed on Saturday, he was wondering what the next day might bring. At 8am Sunday (7th) his phone went off with a jarring alarm tone signalling a cave rescue message arriving. The Duty Controller for DCRO team had received a request for help from the South and Mid Wales Cave Rescue Team for a rescue in Ogof Ffynnon Ddu (OFD), one of the UK’s largest cave systems.
Pete and his wife, Beth were packed and out the door within an hour and joined up with other members of the team heading for South Wales. Arriving at the South Wales Caving Club where the operation was being run from, it was immediately apparent that this was a huge rescue. There were groups of cavers everywhere, gathered from across the UK.
Pete’s team was tasked to deploy underground in the very early hours of Monday (8th) morning when Pete was supposed to be over at SpanSet’s training centre in Middlewich. A quick call to Sam Wilkinson, Training Manager to explain the situation and of course Pete was freed up from training commitments so he and others from his team who he had driven to the rescue, could remain on scene and continue to help for as long as they were needed.
Pete and others from DCRO worked alongside colleagues from other voluntary teams to move the stretcher towards the cave entrance in the Main Streamway, a very cold and wet section of the OFD system. Each team was replaced by another ‘shift’ after around 8 hours to allow them to return to the surface to recover and eat. Members of Pete’s rescue team were involved right up to the point where the casualty was finally brought to the surface 30 hours after they first arrived - over 50 hours after the accident took place and following what might prove to be the UK’s longest ever underground stretcher carry.
‘I’m very grateful not to have had to rush back from Wales to get to work and thank Sam for jumping in without any hesitation to take over my course. I was back delivering a Gotcha Rescue Kit training course at Middlewich on Wednesday, and I think I did an okay job of hiding the muscle fatigue and bruises generated over the preceding days in South Wales! I was very proud to play a small part in this successful rescue and wish to congratulate the South and Mid Wales Cave Rescue Team on a superbly managed incident. Like other cave or mountain rescue teams in the UK, SMWCRT is made up of volunteers and is entirely funded by donations’. Pete Knight
SpanSet would like to wish the casualty well and hopes he makes a full and quick recovery.
