700 Calls For New Ambulance Team

1 February 2012, 05:00 | Updated: 1 February 2012, 15:02

In a year since the Thames Valley's Hazardous Area Response Team (HART) was set up, they've attended over 700 incidents.

The team consists of 42 specialist trained paramedics and technicians who respond to emergencies, like if a person is trapped or stuck in a hazardous area.

They have attended more than 700 incidents since they were set up, including a warehouse fire, people trapped down wells and helicopter crashes.

The biggest incident they've had to deal with so far was the Swinley Forest fire in April 2011.

Paul Haley is the team manager. He told Heart how they're training to be able to deal with even more emergencies:

"We've all completed inland water training now, so should there be any flooding then we can provide an inland water response, where we'd be kitted up in dry suits, flotation devices, and be able to get to people in houses which have been trapped by flood water."

Paul told us about their next big challenge - the Olympics;

"We're contributing staff to part of London's response, but also on our patch we've got Olympics rowing at Dorney in Eton and I believe we'll be adding a HART role to any response which is required in Berkshire."