Two Burnham-On-Sea RNLI lifeboats and a team of Coastguards were called to the River Brue estuary on Thursday evening (May 17th) to investigate a suspicious object – possibly a person – floating in the water.
Two lifeboats were launched from the town’s jetty shortly after 7.45pm and they made their way to the river estuary next to Burnham Sailing Club where the object was seen drifting, as pictured here.
Burnham Coastguard Station Officer Dave Welland told Burnham-On-Sea.com: “A member of the public had raised the alarm after spotting something floating the object that, from a distance, looked as though it could have been a person in difficulty.”
“We were tasked to investigate, along with the lifeboats, and were relieved to find that it was simply a floating wood log.”
The lifeboats recovered the object and conducted a brief search of the shoreline to ensure no-one had been in any difficulty before the crews were stood down.
“A member of the RNLI shore crew had initially seen the object in the water and had done the right thing in raising the alarm,” added Mr Welland.
“It was a false alarm with good intent, but could have turned out to be something far more serious.”
“If anyone has suspicions about something floating in the water, it’s always best to call it in to the Coastguard via 999 for us to check out rather than leave it and later find that someone was in difficulty.”
