Incident report

Chatsworth Park hosts Chatsworth Country Fair, an annual, three day event attracting tens of thousands of people on each day.  Buxton Mountain Rescue Team, as a fundraising event, has been helping the fair organisers for over thirty years and the team has members on sight throughout the weekend.  Whilst the team’s principal task is to sell programs it is often called upon help with the myriad of problems which are bound to arise with so many people attending the show.  Minor injuries and lost children are regular occurrences but occasionally an event develops into something a little more serious.

On Friday, the first day of the 2016 event, the team was asked to assist with the search for an elderly gentleman who had become separated from his family on the showground.  The man had already been missing for two hours and his family were now seriously concerned for his well being.  BMRT had twenty members on site and they quickly started to organise a search of the ground but it was no easy job to locate a moving target with thousands of people still around the main arena and stalls.  Derbyshire police were informed and local officers were to patrol the surrounding roads.

However, after about an hour, a team members re-checked the West Gate entrance to the ground and found the man safe and well but a little confused near the river bridge.  He was soon returned to the safety of his family and members returned to their normal duties around the show.