A 47 year old man was airlifted to safety after falling eight metres from the cliff face at Anvil Point near Swanage in Dorset.
The climber, part of a group visiting from London over the hot weekend, was rescued on Saturday 12th July 2025 at the start of a busy few days for the emergency services.
Swanage and St Albans Coastguard teams went to the aid of the injured climber
Air ambulance took man to Southampton Hospital
The multi-agency response to help the injured climber involved Swanage and St Albans Coastguard, South Western Ambulance Service, Coastguard Rescue Helicopter 175 and the Devon Air Ambulance.
Due to the man’s injuries and the difficulty of access to the location, he was airlifted by the coastguard rescue helicopter from the bottom of the cliff up to the top, and then handed over to the air ambulance which flew him to Southampton Hospital for treatment.
The coastguard helicopter airlifted the man up from the bottom of the cliff
The climber was then transferred to the air ambulance and taken to hospital
Four callouts for Swanage Fire Station
Meanwhile Swanage Fire Station was called out four times on Saturday 12th July 2025.
The first was at 3.40 pm to Valley Road in Harman’s Cross after concerns about a fire on the railway embankment. Two crews from Swanage attended and ensured that the small fire had been fully extinguished.
At 5.33 pm a fire crew from Swanage and one from Weymouth then dealt with a fire which spread across an area of approximately 40 metres by 5 metres, further along the embankment nearer to Corfe Castle.
Just a few hours later at 7.18 pm, one crew from Swanage went to a reported fire at Studland Heath. They found a campfire at the edge of the heath, which was being used as a barbecue, and extinguished it using a water knapsack and soil.
The final callout of the day was at 10.26 pm to a small controlled burn in a field off the High Street, Swanage, near to St Mark’s C of E primary school and close to the area where the circus was set up.
A large amount of smoke was reported but the fire was quickly extinguished by the crew.
Last of the four callouts in one day for Swanage Fire Station
The fire was quickly extinguished near to where the circus was set up
Swanage Lifeboat Station had two incidents at once
While Saturday had been a quiet day for the Swanage lifeboat crew, when the pagers went off on Sunday 13th July 2025, there were two separate incidents at once.
Firstly at 4.43 pm, the inshore lifeboat was tasked to paddle boarders at Old Harry, but as it was launching, a mayday call was received from a dive boat, so the all weather lifeboat headed out a few minutes later to the vessel in distress.
There had been reports that two paddle boarders had been dropped into the sea near Old Harry by a jetski and they had got into some difficulties offshore.
The inshore lifeboat searched the area which had lots of paddle boarders. They spoke to several in the area but found none that were in difficulty.
The mayday was for two divers on a drift dive who had not been found. As the mayday came through, another vessel spotted the divers’ surface marker buoys.
The divers had also set off their personal location beacon and so had been picked up by the radar on the lifeboat. The divers were then recovered safe and well.
Launch of the inshore lifeboat to reports of paddle boarders in trouble
The all weather lifeboat returns to the boat house after making sure the two divers were safe and well
