United Kingdom Rescue Organisation (UKRO) National Challenge 2024
The Bridgend Extrication Team once again did South Wales Fire and Rescue Service proud as they were crowned United Kingdom Rescue Organisation (UKRO) National Challenge Extrication champions for a seventh time.
The 2024 event took place in Portsmouth between 26-29th September, and was hosted by Hampshire and Isle of Wight FRS, which saw more than 30 teams from across the UK taking part in various challenges testing disciplines including; extrication, rope, trauma and water rescue scenarios.
Also attending the event were guest teams from Croatia, Luxembourg and Australia.
Porthcawl Extrication, South Wales Rope, Cardiff Central Trauma and Bridgend Trauma teams also represented Team South Wales at the UKRO National Event, having come through their own regional events held earlier in the year, at Cardiff Gate’s Wales Challenge.
Competing teams were challenged on their knowledge and skills to collectively extract casualties from crashed vehicles, rescue from height and other traumatic injury scenarios.
In addition to being scored for the overall team, there were also marked placings for Incident Command, Technical Skills and Medic categories.
It is the seventh time a Bridgend Extrication Team has won the overall Extrication Team crown since the UKRO National Challenge event began in 2001, with this year’s team also scooping first place for the Incident Command category, and ranking second for the Technical Skills section.
Made up of Roger Magan, Mark IIes, Nathan Moyle, Matt Edwards, Rob Buckley and Danny Gale, the championships saw the Bridgend team regain the overall UKRO National Extrication Team title which was last held by them in 2021, and following their earlier triumphs from 2006, 2012, 2016, 2017 and 2018.
They will now get to test themselves against the best teams from around the globe at the 2025 World Rescue Challenge (hosts tbc),and are hoping to once again regain their world title having been crowned champions on an incredible eight previous occasions (most recently at the La Rochelle event held in 2019).
When asked about the secrets of their success, Roger Magan said: “Bridgend is a group of passionate individuals and friends with a continuous desire to improve, learn and pass on skills.
“We are a group who are able to work closely together in order to overcome adversity, can communicate effectively, and work as a team for the benefit of each other – no one is bigger than the team.
“The ethos of this team is to learn best practice and bring it back to the Service in order to share and improve the knowledge and skills of their colleagues, and ultimately improve their performance to keep South Wales communities safe.
“We’re extremely proud to represent the Service and are honoured to maintain the high standards of previous team members, who have been recognised both nationally and internationally.
“We are glad to bring positivity and pride to the Service for all our colleagues and friends.”
Other fantastic results from SWFRS included; South Wales Rope coming in second place for the Team category and placing third for the Medic grouping.
The Cardiff Central and Bridgend Trauma teams – assessed on their treatment of critically injured and ill patients after arriving at an initial stage of an incident – placed fourth and sixth respectively overall.
Our Fire Cadets – Grace, Luke and William – also performed well and were assessed as part of the trauma challenge, competing against nine other teams.
It is the fourth year that UKRO has included the Cadets Challenge as part of its event, for young people aged between 13-17 years old.
Rather than competing merely to win, the emphasis for the Cadets is to develop a young person’s life skills, and their ability to provide first aid care should they ever find themselves in a situation that requires it.
Meanwhile, there was a heartfelt tribute paid to our late former colleague, Youth Services Manager Donna Crossman, for the impact her work had on the Fire Cadet programme nationally.
UKRO offers a learning environment and experience where teams can test and enhance their skills by learning both from others and national best practice.
“As always, all team members were proud to attend the UKRO Challenge to represent SWFRS,” continued Roger.
“This year has been a fantastic opportunity to develop new team members across all disciplines, providing them with an opportunity to challenge themselves, and learn and develop new skills from other competitors and the UKRO workshops.
“This continually aides the service in shaping the further development of knowledge, skills and best practice for SWFRS and has provided an opportunity for us to be at the forefront of developing best practice, both nationally and internationally.”
For more information about the UKRO National Challenge and to view past results, visit: https://ukro.org/?page_id=36