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UK search and rescue teams gather for training exercises in Wales

Published

2 years ago

May 5, 2024

LAST week, members of the UK’s domestic and international search and rescue teams came together to carry out highly specialised training in Wales’s capital city.

Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) and International Search and Rescue (ISAR) teams are typically deployed in the wake of events such as natural disasters or acts of terrorism, and are responsible for finding and freeing trapped people.

From Monday 22nd April to Wednesday 24th, teams from across the UK rallied in Cardiff and Gloucester for training exercises, travelling from fire service bases in Essex, Kent, Hampshire, Lancashire, Lincolnshire, Merseyside, West Midlands, Scotland, South Wales, and Mid and West Wales.

Utilising both the Heath hospital and the Principality Stadium in Cardiff, the teams conducted dog and drone exercises as part of routine training which is vital in aiding their search and rescue efforts. With the assistance of eight highly specialised sniffer dogs and state of the art drone equipment, the team practiced their urban search and rescue training across three days.

Kevin Dite, Watch Manager at South Wales Fire and Rescue Service, and USAR/ ISAR team member, said: “Different drones are deployed for different reasons. The cameras are useful for open area searching, and some have thermal imaging capabilities, stability systems, and of course they can cover large areas much faster than we can.

“We tend to do this training quarterly, at a minimum. The dogs need to be kept intact and protected, and of course, drone work has a massive skill fade as it’s such intricate flying, so we try and do it as regularly as we can. It’s also about getting the dogs used to the drones; with the low-level humming in the background something that will be constant for them in their rescues.”

In the event of a large-scale disaster, it is safer to send small drones into buildings, followed by the dogs with their acute sense of smell, to search for missing people. The dogs are trained to ‘alert’ to a live person by barking until their handler arrives and rewards them with a favourite toy.

Once the search team pinpoints a lost person, they have a range of tools at hand to make an area safe and to free trapped people. Every rescue is different, but might including shoring up fallen masonry, cutting through debris to help someone to safety, or using heavy lifting equipment to create exit routes.

Last year, some members of these teams were deployed to Malawi, Morocco, and Turkey after national disasters struck the areas – with the drones, the dogs, and their handlers in situ.

Tristan Bowen, USAR team leader and ISAR team member, said: “The dogs are useful because they will do the job of 20 technicians in half the time. They can collapse themselves into the smallest spaces and have been trained to search for live bodies in destitute areas, using their remarkable scent to detect human life, and can pick up on sweat, carbon dioxide, aftershave or perfume, etc.

“Part of this training involves exposing our operatives to the different scenarios they may come across; be it cold weather survival, hot places, urban areas, city centres, or large-scale venues. We will all be familiar with the explosion which occurred at the Manchester Arena after the Ariana Grande concert in 2017, so the idea is to expose our dogs in the event of deploying into any kind of structure which could pose issues to them in terms of the number of people, the actual scale and size of the building, and all the hidden voids within the building.

“We get deployed internationally quite regularly. I’ve been to Turkey, Nepal, Haiti, and Christchurch New Zealand to assist international relief efforts. As you can imagine, it’s no small feat to ship us all out – we’re classed as a heavy rescue team with all our equipment; including technicians, doctors, vets, dog handlers, structural engineers – the team is huge.

Crew Manager Niamh Darcy and her dog, Vesper, a four-year-old Belgian Malinois, are both members of the USAR and ISAR teams. Vesper works as a search and rescue dog as part of Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service (MFRS), and has been deployed to numerous disasters, most recently the 2023 earthquakes in Turkey and Morocco. Alongside her handler, she has been responsible for locating multiple live casualties and reuniting them with their families.

Vesper also won the Crufts Hero Dog Award 2024 this year, within the category of ‘Extraordinary Life of a Working Dog’ – a category which was open to fire services, the police, and the army.

Niamh said: “Vesper can clear a building by herself and can indicate to me if there is no need for us to enter a building. These dogs do an awful lot of agility training; you really need a dog that’s meticulous in this kind of role, they run over rubble piles and zone in on a hit, and once the canines have done their job then we commit and zone in on an area to break or breach or lift things off people.

“Malis in general are a very bright breed. They have a very high mental capacity, are very agile, and Vesper in particular is extremely friendly and sociable. However, even if the dogs are proficient in searching, they still need that exposure to travel with you, and they need stamina. We can go for up to 14-hour days when we’re deployed, and she’s very adaptable in that sense.”

A spokesperson said: “Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service provides emergency response cover, public safety information and prevention and protection programmes across 12,000 square kilometres, which is almost two-thirds of Wales. It is the third largest Fire and Rescue Service in the UK and covers six local authorities areas: Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion, Neath Port Talbot, Pembrokeshire, Powys and the City and County of Swansea.

“South Wales Fire and Rescue Service aims to make south Wales safer, by reducing risk. We work to protect and serve across the 10 Unitary Authorities that make up our diverse area, working in partnership with our colleagues in other frontline services.”

Community

Pembrokeshire Lottery makes Superdraw winner’s Christmas extra special

Published

1 day ago

December 3, 2025

Tom Sinclair

ONE lucky Pembrokeshire Lottery player has scooped a festive windfall after winning the £10,000 Christmas Superdraw held on Wednesday 3 December.

The winner, Mr Damon McGarvie, formerly of Milford Haven and now living in Llangwm, was selected with lucky number 41475. He plays through a salary-deduction scheme run by his employer, Pembrokeshire County Council.

Mr McGarvie’s name was announced live on Radio Pembrokeshire, after which the Pembrokeshire Lottery team made contact and presented him with his cheque later that day.

Speaking after the win, Mr McGarvie said he and his wife will be jetting off on a once-in-a-lifetime holiday over the festive period, thanks to the surprise Christmas windfall.

Pembrokeshire Lottery Manager Abigail Owens said:
“I am so pleased for Mr McGarvie. He has contributed to the Pembrokeshire Lottery for many years, and it is only by the continued support of our players that we are able to assist so many local businesses with interest-free funding from the loan fund.”

The regular weekly £2,000 draws continue in the run-up to the January Superdraw, which will offer a £4,000 prize.

To sign up or order Pembrokeshire Lottery gift subscriptions for Christmas, call 01646 690800.

Photo caption: Damon McGarvie with his winner’s cheque.

Community

Care home fees in Wales remain among the lowest – but families still face crippling bills

Published

1 day ago

December 3, 2025

Tom Sinclair

WALES continues to offer some of the most affordable care home places in the UK, with residents paying hundreds of pounds less each week than in London or Scotland, new figures reveal.

The average weekly cost of a residential care home place in Wales stands at £1,156 – £392 cheaper than in London (£1,548) and £142 below the UK average of £1,298, according to data published by the country’s largest care home reviews website, carehome.co.uk.

Even when nursing care or specialist dementia support is required, Wales remains significantly cheaper than most of the UK. A week in a Welsh nursing home with dementia care costs £1,440 on average – £327 less than in London and £124 below the national figure.

The figures, based on self-funder fees collected on 9 September 2025, underline a stark north-south divide that has persisted for years.

London is by far the most expensive region, with basic residential care now averaging £1,548 a week. Scotland, where care workers benefit from a higher minimum wage settlement, comes a close second at £1,539. In contrast, the North East of England remains the cheapest area at just £1,112 a week for residential care – almost £200 below the UK average.

Sue Learner, editor of carehome.co.uk, said the regional variations were only part of the story.

“Wales is the third most affordable region for most types of care, which will come as a relief to many families here,” she said. “But even at £1,156 a week, the bills add up to almost £60,000 a year. For the 49 per cent of residents who pay for their own care, these costs are devastating.”

The financial pressure is compounded by differing rules on state help across the UK. In Wales, anyone with assets below £50,000 qualifies for local authority support – more than double England’s £23,250 threshold and well above Scotland’s £35,000 limit.

Ms Learner warned that rising staff wages and looming increases in employer National Insurance contributions would push fees higher everywhere.

“Local councils are already stretched to breaking point,” she said. “Without genuine reform of the social care system – something governments have been promising for decades – more and more families will have no choice but to sell the family home to fund care.”

The website, which carries 390,000 independently verified reviews, is urging people to plan early and seek expert advice. Its free Care Helpline (01488 501 499) is available to anyone looking for a home that offers both quality and value for money.

As the population ages and demand grows, campaigners say the latest figures are another reminder that the postcode lottery in care costs shows no sign of disappearing.

UK care home fees at a glance (average weekly self-funder rates)

London: £1,548
Scotland: £1,539
South East England: £1,446
Wales: £1,156
North East England: £1,112 (cheapest)
UK average: £1,298

Source: carehome.co.uk, 9 September 2025

Community

Folly Farm marks second birth of critically endangered rhino

Published

1 day ago

December 3, 2025

Luke Sinclair

FOLLY FARM is celebrating the birth of another critically endangered eastern black rhino calf – and it’s a boy!

This is the second rhino calf to be born at the family-run zoo, and the second in Wales as part of a managed breeding programme through its membership with EAZA (the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria).

After a 15-month long pregnancy, mum Dakima gave birth to a healthy male calf on Thursday 27 November. With only an estimated 39 eastern black rhinos born in the UK in the past 25 years, it’s a significant achievement for the captive European Endangered Breeding Programme (EEP) for black rhinos.

Eastern black rhinos are classed as critically endangered due to poaching and loss of habitat. There is thought to be an estimated 1471 Eastern black rhino left in the wild and around 109 in zoos across Europe, including Folly Farm’s newest addition.

The calf made its appearance at 6.34am and within a couple of hours was standing up, following mum around the enclosure and had started suckling.

12-year-old eastern black rhino Dakima arrived at Folly Farm in May 2017 as part of a European breeding programme and met her mate, 14 year-old male Nkosi.

Mating rhinos can be unpredictable, but their relationship blossomed and Dakima gave birth to her first calf at the start of 2020. Male calf Glyndŵr was Dakima’s first born and the first rhino calf to have been born in Wales. Glyndŵr was named after Folly Farm’s Founding Director, the late Glyndŵr Williams, and has since moved onto another animal collection to continue the breeding programme for the species.

Eastern black rhinos are solitary animals and therefore usually reside in their own paddocks. But when the time was right, Dakima and Nkosi were reintroduced again for some carefully planned ‘date nights’ – and keepers predicted she fell pregnant sometime in August 2024. After having Dakima’s stool sample analysed at a specialist lab in Chester Zoo, who run the breeding programme for Eastern black rhino, it was confirmed that baby number two was on the way, with a due date of mid-November 2025.

Conservation Officer, Jack Gradidge, said: “It’s always heart-warming to welcome new arrivals as part of the European Breeding Programme through our membership with EAZA (The European Association of Zoos and Aquaria) – but it’s even more special when it’s such a significant animal and one who’s wild cousins are under threat.

“Dakima was a great mum with Glyn so it’s wonderful to see these instincts are still just as strong the second time around. She’s being very protective of her new baby, showing they have a strong bond already.

“This is such a monumental event for all the staff here and the zoo team have worked incredibly hard to create an environment where the rhinos felt comfortable enough to mate.

“Not only is this calf helping to increase numbers of a critically endangered species, he’s also the second rhino ever to be born in Wales – with his brother being the first!”

Along with other zoos across Europe, Folly Farm is part of a breeding programme to help increase the numbers of Eastern black rhino in captivity and, ultimately, the wild. They support a number of conservation projects alongside various animal charities – including their new partnership with ‘Helping Rhinos’, a UK based organisation who, amongst various other conservation initiatives, support a rhino orphanage in South Africa, caring for young calves who have become victims of the poaching crisis.

Simon Jones, the CEO of Helping Rhinos was delighted with the zoo’s happy news; “We are absolutely delighted to welcome news of this beautiful eastern black rhino calf at Folly Farm.

We are grateful for their support of Helping Rhinos’ efforts including the care of young calves orphaned by poaching.”

Most animals give birth at night under the cover of darkness – and Dakima gave birth early in the morning, just before the keepers arrived to start their day.

Jack explains: “Our rhino keeper opened up the rhino house and the first thing he saw was the security camera footage where a tiny newborn rhino was seen happily padding about the enclosure. After quietly taking a sneaky peak at the beautiful new calf to confirm what he had seen – he let the team know the happy news that baby had arrived!

“We then left Dakima alone with her new bundle of joy, giving them both some space to bond – but continued to monitor them on the cameras and did regular spot checks to ensure baby was starting to feed.

“For us, the next steps are just to keep an eye on Dakima and make sure the calf stays healthy and gets everything he needs from mum. Our goal is always to let nature take its course and interfere as little as possible.

“Nkosi will be a bit of an absent father, but that’s perfectly normal as male rhinos don’t have anything to do with their offspring in the wild. It’s unlikely we’ll introduce him to the calf for some time.

“In the wild, rhino calves can stay with their mums for up to four years, after that there’s a possibility this new addition could one day be released into the wild to help boost population numbers – or move to another zoo to continue the breeding programme in Europe just like his brother.

“It’s exciting to be playing our part in helping to safeguard these amazing animals for future generations.”

Folly Farm’s rhino keepers will monitor mum and baby closely over the coming weeks and they will be back out in the enclosure in due course.

Visitors shouldn’t expect to see the calf for a while but Folly Farm will be posting updates on their social media channels.

Folly Farm’s Kifaru Reserve welcomed rhinos to the park ten years ago almost to the day! It is a £500,000 purpose-built exhibit which tells the story of the role of modern zoos in conservation and highlights Folly Farm’s hands-on commitment to conservation through the projects it supports in the wild and closer to home.

For further information please visit https://www.folly-farm.co.uk/.