New Rope Rescue Unit Launched at Altens Fire Station

That the Parliament welcomes the creation of a new specialist technical rope rescue unit in north east Scotland, based at Altens Community Fire Station in Aberdeen; recognises that the Altens team will be the fourth technical rope rescue unit within the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, and that it is now operational; understands that the specially trained officers will be able to use their skills to carry out rescues at locations such as cliff faces, inaccessible hillsides and tall buildings, and that their training allows them to lower firefighters to casualties who are in distress, and to retrieve those casualties using baskets and harnesses, as well as assisting other emergency workers at the scene of an incident, and commends all the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service firefighters who took part in the extensive training in order to become part of the technical rope rescue unit, ensuring that communities across the north east of Scotland will be safer as a result.