EMERGENCY services and volunteers worked together to rescue motorists from their cars as snow fell heavily near Okehampton.

Some 100 people spent the night at Okehampton College’s emergency centre overnight from Thursday into Friday, after being rescued from the A30 just outside the town.

Volunteers from North Dartmoor Search and Rescue Team (NDSRT) answered the call to join police and fire crews rescuing motorists as snow fell heavily on Thursday evening.

They were called out at 6.15pm to help dig out motorists stuck in heavy snow on the A30 at Sourton Cross.

Team leader David Stoneman said the first challenge was reaching the scene from the group’s headquarters in Okehampton, with team members, who are all volunteers, travelling from as far afield as Chulmleigh, Holsworthy and Stibbs Cross.

‘After meeting at the team centre, our next challenge was to get to Sourton Cross. We couldn’t use the A30 as it was blocked so we took the A386,’ he said. ‘We managed to get the team Land Rovers to within about a mile of Sourton Cross where we found the road blocked by abandoned and stuck vehicles. We assisted several drivers enabling them to get moving and managed to reach Sourton Cross. By this time, it was about 9.30pm. It had taken nearly an hour to get from Okehampton to Sourton.

’Our first task was to move along the A30, informing those in cars and lorries to stay in their vehicles and also to identify those at high risk; this included the elderly, young children and people who needed routine medicine but didn’t have it with them.

‘Once we’d made contact with the drivers and their passengers, all the organisations —volunteer, public and private —worked together to clear a route along the A30 to allow convoys of cars to be escorted into Okehampton. More than 100 vehicles were escorted into Okehampton where an emer-gency shelter, manned by more volunteers, had been set up at the community college.’

Members of the mountain rescue team also searched vehicles along the A386 north towards the Manor House Hotel and south to Sourton itself.

‘By this time the wind had created drifts big enough to completely cover cars,’ he said. ‘Several vehicles had been abandoned and where there were occupants we assisted them into Land Rovers to be driven to the emergency shelter in Okehampton. Finally at 4.45am on Friday morning, when it was considered everyone was in a safe place, the Dartmoor search and rescue teams were stood down.’

David said the night had proved to be a real team effort between police officers, fire officers and Dartmoor search and rescue teams, with the teams from Plymouth and Tavistock joining the North Dartmoor team. Altogether, more than 40 members were involved.

‘It was wild, the wind was relentlessly driving the snow into our faces and it was bitterly cold,’ he said. ‘It was exactly as predicted, and our members put themselves at risk to help others. There was however a good community spirit with good joint working between volunteers and paid professionals, and the staff at Sourton Services and the Travelodge were great, making us hot drinks and providing a place to shelter for a break.’

Traffic policeman Sgt Dave Thubron was drafted in from north Devon to help with the rescue efforts on the A30 and A386.

‘After a long night on the A30 just woken up in the meal room of Okehampton nick!’ he tweeted early on Friday morning. ‘So relieved we managed to get the trapped motorists off that wretched road! Real teamwork was the key last night.’

Also taking part in the rescue mission were retained fire crew from Okehampton Fire Station, who were on patrol on the A386 north of Sourton and the A30, and PC Nathan Walker of Okehampton Police. They both recorded the snowy scene on camera. The A386 north of Sourton remained closed on Saturday as Highways Agency staff worked throughout the day to clear the snow. Police officers also attended the scene from Tavistock Police Station.

Rescue workers from North Dartmoor Search and Rescue Team also answered the call on Friday for 4x4 vehicles to help ambulance crews reach out of the way places made impassable by snow. They worked throughout the day to ensure people could get to hospital.

Station commander Ian Donovan, of Okehampton Fire Station, said his retained crew were on shift throughout the crisis. ‘Because of the conditions, we maintained a full shift for 48 hours at the station, so we had two crews who were sleeping in the station, although we didn’t get much sleep because we were manning the station overnight,’ he said.

A command post was set up on the night at the Travelodge on the A30 at Sourton Cross, under the command of John Donovan, Ian’s son, also a firefighter.

‘We had a lot of cars that had been stopped in their tracks by the snow,’ said Ian. ‘There were some cars which had just been abandoned by their owners so we went along the next day just to check them again.’

Okehampton fire crews were also involved in the call to help ambulance crews. On Saturday, they rescued a woman who had fallen and broken her arm after a flood at her house on the road between Whiddon Down and Iddesleigh. They also took the woman’s daughter and granddaughter to stay at the Travelodge nearby, because the house had suffered flood damage.