This article is from page 3 of the 2012-06-05 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 3 JPG
EMERGENCY services “pulled out all the stops” to rescue a family who became trapped on Rine Island, just off Ballyvaughan, on Sunday afternoon.
A 10-year-old, three teenagers and their father all became trapped on the island when the tide came in behind them on Sunday afternoon. The island, which is located between Ballyvaughan and Gleninagh, is accessible when the tide is out but becomes completely sea-locked at high tide.
The alarm was raised when the father, understood not to be local, swam ashore and alerted the emergency services. The Shannon-based Irish Coastguard helicopter was scrambled to the scene just after 4pm with the Galway RNLI Lifeboat – which was in the area conducting a training exercise – also in attendance.
The rescue helicopter lowered a crew-member onto the island who stayed with the four youngsters un til they were rescued. Two members of the lifeboat crew waded onto the island and transferred the four chil- dren to the lifeboat.
They were brought ashore to the Quay in Ballyvaughan where two of the four children were treated for hypothermia by paramedics.
“Both rescue services pulled out all the stops and were on the scene within minutes to divert what could have been a tragedy,” said Mike Swan, Galway Lifeboat operations manager.
According to Matty Shannon of the Doolin Unit of the Irish Coastguard, there are many islands in the area where people can become trapped if the tides change.
He urged everyone using the sea to be vigiliant, especially in relation to the rising tides.
“There are a lot of islands like this in the area and people do need to be aware. Thankfully, this wasn’t a very serious incident and everyone was saved without any major injury but people should always be aware of the dangers that the sea and the tides can pose,” he said.
“The sea was quite calm yesterday when this happened and they were lucky as the Galway RNLI lifeboat happened to be in the area and was able to reach them very quickly.”