Hot summer weather attracted scores of visitors to Burnham-On-Sea beach on Saturday, resulting in a busy first day on duty for the town’s new RNLI lifeguards.
Temperatures reached 21.9C (71F) on Saturday afternoon as the summer heatwave arrived.
Burnham and Berrow’s new RNLI lifeguards went on duty for the first day of the summer season and had an eventful day.
Manager Luke Yabsley said: “It was busy – there was lots of preventitive work with mud walkers and helping the jetty wardens with beach safety. There were a couple of minor first aid incidents to deal with too.”
Adding to the busy day, the lifeguards’ beach buggy also briefly got stuck in mud on Burnham beach, requiring the help of BARB, as pictured.
Luke explained: “One of the lifeguards was proceeding down the beach to give safety advice to a family walking across the mud when the all-terrain vehicle unfortunately got stuck. After ensuring the safety of the family, we worked with BARB to pull it free, with great team-work between the organisations. It showed how easy it is to get into difficulty.”
The RNLI is providing the lifeguarding services at both Burnham and Berrow beaches to visitors and residents. An RNLI beach unit is sited on Berrow Beach while the lifeguards at Burnham are sharing the jetty beach office on The Esplanade.
