WYE Valley firefighters are among the best in the world when it comes to rescuing people in road accidents.

Nearly all of the six-strong Herefordshire and Worcestershire Fire and Rescue road traffic collision extrication (RTC) team started their careers at Ross-on-Wye Fire Station.

And they blazed a trail at the World Rescue Organisation (WRO) Extrication Challenge in Lanzarote, where they placed second in the medical category representing the UK, and fourth out of 36 teams overall.

The team this year included Jayne Collins, Pat Murphy, Adam Holder, Dan Gray, Shaun Moser and Adrian Phillips.

A HWFRS spokesperson said they successfully extricated all six casualties within the allocated timeframes with injuries including a simulated entrapped pregnant mother, catastrophic haemorrhage and a casualty with a flail chest.

They team competed at the highest standard, receiving excellent feedback throughout within a highly competitive field, they added.

This year’s event brought together the best teams from around the globe to share their knowledge and experience in the desire to improve rescue standards.

The objective of the WRO Challenge is to improve RTC extrication techniques and assist in the development of trauma-related skills of firefighters to enable them to deal successfully with the vast range of casualty-centred incidents.

Teams are assessed on their lifesaving capabilities, technical and command skills in three different road traffic collision-based scenarios.

At the World Rescue Challenge, the extrication scenarios are categorised into three tiers, based on the complexity of vehicles involved, the intricacy of the scenario, and the number and severity of patient injuries.

Caption: The Extrication team included (from left) Adrian Phillips, Dan Gray, Adam Holder, Shaun Moser, Pat Murphy, and Jayne Collins.