Spare a thought for the emergency services which are on call on Christmas Day.

All four of the Dartmoor rescue teams are ready to go out and help people who get into trouble.

Members of the North Dartmoor Search and Rescue Team, based in Okehampton, will be ready to spring into action to help anyone in trouble on the moor and surrounding Devon countryside across their area, just as they are on all 365 days of the year.

There are currently 38 members on-call within the team, all volunteers, who operate out of the team’s rescue centre at Hameldown Road on the east side of the town.

They train every Tuesday night whatever the weather, so are ready to head out in the worst of conditions whenever someone needs help. The team has a saying: ‘if it’s not raining, it’s not training’.

Press officer Matt Holland, who has been a member of the team for five years, lives close to the rescue centre, so he’s often one of the first on the scene.

Matt said: “We’re on call 365 days a year. In the event that there is a callout on Christmas Day, our search managers would be contacted by the police or ambulance service, after which the each managers send out a message on our system to the whole team, where the casualty is, all the details and asking for equipment and drivers. We reply to say if we are available: ‘SAR A’.

“We report into the search managers and they work out how many people are needed based on the situation of the callout. It might be 20 and it might be five or six. If we need more team members, another message comes through to the whole team or we will be asking our neighbouring teams to help.”

How many team members are needed depends on what the callout is.

“If it is a rescue where someone has to be stretchered over a long distance of moorland, then we have to have a minimum of eight people to carry the stretcher, with more team members in reserve” said Matt.

“The stretcher with a casualty and medical equipment is heavy and tiring to ensure its as comfortable for the casualty over the poor terrain, so we will take it in turns and only do 500-1,000 metres each, to ensure that no one gets burned out.”

He added, “Winter is our busiest period, from September to February. We usually have the highest number of callouts during this period. People tend to get caught out by the weather, forgetting it gets dark at 4 pm at this time of year.”

He feels “people underestimate Dartmoor” because it is not mountainous in the way the Lake District or Peak District is.

“Everything looks the same in the middle of Dartmoor, more so when fog closes in, too,” he said. “That grass tuft is the same as that grass, and individuals can end up getting hopelessly lost without the right means to navigate.”

Typically, they are looking for people who have gotten lost. Their advice generally if someone knows where they currently are – and has enough signal on their phone to send a message – is to stay put, message the service with your location and ensure you stay warm and sheltered. Members of the rescue team will then find it easier to find you.

Going back to the Covid years and the immediate aftermath, the rescue teams were being called out to look for what they term ‘despondents’. Now, though, it is more about missing people or slips, falls and injuries.

“Traditionally, we have spent a lot of time looking for people who sadly don’t want to be with us anymore,” said Matt. “That has changed. We are still getting two or three a year, but I’m hoping people are now getting the support they need before it gets that bad.”

The team has a total of 38 people on its team currently, including three members trained as dog handlers and three dogs and one trainee.

Matt added, “We’re a charity. We depend entirely on the public to remain operational. Everything we do depends on the kind-hearted people who help us keep going, and that is the same for all the mountain rescue teams.”

See https://ndsart.org.uk for more information.

If you need Mountain Rescue, call 999, ask for Police and then Mountain Rescue.