Riverboat to the rescue

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Man pulled out of river near Watermans Art Centre

At 10.18am on the 8th November London Chiswick RNLI Lifeboat was called by the Coastguard to a report of a person in the river next to the Waterman's centre in Brentford.

The lifeboat arrived on scene to find that the person had been pulled out of the water up by the London fire brigade onto a barge. The firemen were unable to take the casualty onto dry land because of the precarious gangway.

The lifeboat crew then transferred the casualty on their stretcher to the lifeboat where they treated him for mild hypothermia. The lifeboat then took the casualty to a nearby slipway where he was transferred to the care of ambulance paramedics.

The RNLI has an active fleet of 323 lifeboats including four on the Thames. In 2003 Chiswick Lifeboat was one of the busiest lifeboat stations in the UK recovering 138 people. So far in 2004 there have been 174 incidents with 110 people rescued The RNLI is entirely supported by voluntary contributions.

November 12, 2004