..YOU PLANKS; Six boys aged 12 to 16 spark major rescue as they try to paddle across lough in this homemade raft.Byline: JILLY BEATTIE THIS is the makeshift raft six boys risked their lives on before being dramatically rescued. Yesterday a brave windsurfer told how he went to the aid of the stricken youngsters in Belfast Lough Belfast Lough (Loch Lao or Loch Laoigh in Irish) is a large, natural intertidal sea lough situated at the mouth of the River Lagan on the east coast of Northern Ireland. The inner part of the lough comprises a series of mudflats and lagoons. . The children, aged between 12 and 16, survived thanks to the actions of Mark Diamond, who raised the alarm. The windsurfer, whose garden backs on to Belfast Lough, said: "My daughter Holly heard one of the teenagers shouting for help so I went down to the bottom of my garden and noticed one of them was about 400 metres out and starting to drown. "I had a windsurfer so I paddled out on it and took him back in. By then the emergency services emergency services Emergency care '…services …necessary to prevent death or serious impairment of health and, because of the danger to life or health, require the use of the most accessible hospital available and equipped to furnish those services' had arrived. There was the police helicopter, the Bangor lifeboat there. "He was in shock, he wasn't starting to swallow water yet, but he was starting to drown. He was able to hold on to the surfboard and that's how I got him back in." The Belfast-based dentist said the water was calm but that there was an offshore wind blowing the lads out to sea. By the time he got there, the children were drifting towards the shipping lanes and clearly suffering hypothermia hypothermia Abnormally low body temperature, with slowing of physiological activity. It is artificially induced (usually with ice baths) for certain surgical procedures and cancer treatments. . One witness said: "It's amazing that they survived at all. The raft was made of two wooden pallets with a layer of polystyrene boards, the type that's normally used for insulating at building sites. "It was attached to the wood using lengths of twigs that had been poked through the polystyrene and tied in the knot at the back. "The makeshift paddles were made from planks of wood that had square pieces of wood attached at the end. "The whole thing was like a crazy idea from a Boys' Own annual but these lads got themselves into serious trouble and could easily have drowned." Three of those rescued were treated for hypothermia when they reached shore at Whiteabbey. CAPTION(S): BROUGHT ASHORE Rescuers with person in a thermal blanket For the temperature sensor enclosure, see thermowell. A thermal blanket is used to clean large area soil contaminations. The primary function of a thermal blanket is to heat the soil to the boiling point of the contaminants (usually 800 to 1,000°C). OUT OF OAR-DER Peter Scott of the Bangor lifeboat with raft yesterday |
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