2020 Incidents

Standby to assist Scottish Ambulance Service.  Location had been given via What 3 Words and was 28km away from where the casualty actually was. (In TVMRT area.)

The team was called out this evening to assist Northumberland Mountain Rescue Service with the search for missing walkers near the border in the Cheviot area. Luckily they were located as team members were making their way there.

STANDBY - Missing person found before team had been deployed.

Following a review of search areas from our callout last week, 5 team members returned to the Berwickshire coast along with a drone operator from Search & Rescue Aerial Association - Scotland.

The drone enabled a more detailed search than the helicopter conducted last week, of a 1km stretch of all ground between the shoreline and clifftop, including gullies, clefts in rocks, and other inaccessible terrain.

Sadly, a body was recovered from the water on 16th August and the missing person's family was notified by police. 

We returned to Lamberton in the daylight today to continue last night's search alongside Scottish Borders Police, Police Scotland dog teams and helicopter, Eyemouth Coastguard, Dunbar Coastguard, RNLI Berwick upon Tweed Lifeboats and RNLI Eyemouth Lifeboat
Unfortunately, we failed to locate the missing person.  13 Team members responded.

We were called out at 2030hrs to Lamberton on the Berwickshire coast by Scottish Borders Police to support the Eyemouth Coastguard,  Dunbar Coastguard,  RNLI Berwick upon Tweed Lifeboats and RNLI Eyemouth Lifeboat searching for a vulnerable missing male after personal effects were found in the area.  Nothing was found and we were stood down for the night at 0130 the next morning.

15 Team members responded.

We were called to assist Scottish Ambulance Service with a casualty who'd collapsed whilst hill walking near Watch Water reservoir. Great North Air Ambulance Service also attended.

Sadly the woman passed away at the scene. Sincere condolences to family and friends.  8 Team members attended (we are still operating on a minimal response due to Covid-19).

On Thursday evening, BSARU was called to assist police to locate 3 walkers who had become disoriented in mist in the area of Crystal Rig wind farm in the Lammermuir Hills.

The team used Phone Find to pinpoint the walkers' location which was just on the East Lothian side of the county border. Team members from north and south attended and the walkers were returned to their car at Stenton in a team Land Rover and police vehicle.

A walk on good tracks which would have been fine on a clear day was very different in the hill fog. The combination of winding wind farm tracks, thick mist and a map that didn't have some of the newer tracks on led to the group becoming disoriented. 

10 team members responded.

19/6/20 Thanks to last night's hikers for their generous donation to the team.

On Monday evening, we were called to assist Scottish Ambulance Service with the extraction of a teenage casualty following a farm quad bike accident south east of Jedburgh. 6 team members responded.

We wish him a full and speedy recovery.

During the COVID pandemic, we have had to make huge changes to how we operate. Team members respond to all calls in PPE and exercise social distancing as much as possible. We're also running call-outs on minimal team numbers, with those most local to each incident travelling in their own vehicles and only one or two team members collecting team vehicles from the garage.

After every call, team members go home and decontaminate their own kit. Our vehicles go back to base and take over an hour to decontaminate too. All these actions are designed to ensure our members remain as safe as possible and we can maintain our core capability through these difficult times.

The team were put on standby for a possible body recovery in the Kelso area. They were stood down when it was found to be a hoax call. 

The team were called out again, along with  Borders Water Rescue Team, SARDA specialist dogs and the Police Marine Unit to search the riverside and islands for the missing person in the callout earlier this week, now that the water levels had dropped and the water was clearer. Despite a full day's searching by 17 team members plus other agencies, nothing was found. 

POLICE SCOTLAND UPDATE:- the body of a man was found in the River Tweed near the village of Upsettlington, near Norham around 1pm on Thursday, 2 April, 2020.

This was more than 20km downstream of our initial search and later confirmed as the missing person.

The team was called out at lunchtime to search for a missing person who had not been seen since the early hours of Saturday morning. With the help of the  Borders Water Rescue Team we searched the banks of the River Tweed, the levels of which were still very high due to recent rain, and woodlands. 15 team members turned out.  Nothing found.

The team was contacted in the early hours to be on stand-by to relieve TVMRT during the serious flooding incident in Hawick.  No further action was required.

While most of the team were up at Glenshee for their annual Winter Skills training weekend, 5 remaining team members were called on at 5am in the morning to assist Tweed Valley Mountain Rescue Team to respond to a report that someone may have fallen in the River Tweed. This was part of a large multiagency response with Coastguard Rescue Helicopter R199, Lothians & Scottish Borders Police Division, Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, Borders Water Rescue Team all involved in search activity. Searches were made of the riverbank in difficult spate conditions but were stood down later in the day. Sadly a body was found on 3rd March and recovered by Borders Water Rescue Team. 

We were called shortly after 1pm by Police Scotland to assist with the search for a missing person in the Sprouston area. Borders Water Rescue Team we also called to help search along the river Tweed.

We are pleased to have been stood down at 7.30pm after the person returned home safely.  21 team members responded.

The team were put on standby to possibly assist Northumberland National Park MRT and  North of Tyne Mountain Rescue Team for a collapsed racer in the final stages of the Montane Spine Race. The competitor was located in one of the most remote parts of the Pennine Way on Score Head north of King’s Seat.

The Spine Race safety team made their way from the Auchope shelter to the competitor’s location. The competitor was treated by an event Paramedic and one of the Team’s Doctors before being carried off the hill on a stretcher by Northumberland National Park MRT to their vehicles located in the forest north of Uswayford.