Washing up liquid 'the real hero' of girl's rescue

A bottle of washing up liquid has been hailed as the "real hero" by a cave rescue team who used it to help free a school girl who became wedged in rocks for several hours.

Shannon, 11, was on a school residential trip on Dartmoor in Devon when her leg got trapped between enormous granite boulders on Hound Tor on Tuesday.

Emergency services and Dartmoor Search and Rescue teams went to the scene and called on the help of Devon Cave Rescue Organisation (DCRO).

Team leader Olly Rees said he stopped at a garage on his way to pick up a bottle of Fairy washing up liquid, which he used as a lubricant to get Shannon out, and said "it made all the difference".

Rees said: "We have a unique skillset - small, tight gaps where we thrive in what we do.

"I was on my way up, and I'd heard that somebody's stuck in a small rock gap, and you don't really know what that means until you get there and have a look at it.

"We already had some other team members on the way with various specialist gear for widening gaps and breaking rock and so forth, but I just stopped off and got a bottle of the fairy liquid from the petrol station on the way up to the moor."

On arrival, he said Shannon was "pretty firmly wedged".

"It was her leg which was stuck within a rock cleft, and there was some space around the side of it and also nodules of rock which were stopping it from coming out," Rees said.

"We applied it liberally to the leg just to try and get it as slippery as possible to help it to come out. It made all the difference."

He added that Shannon had "displayed tremendous fortitude", having been stuck for more than four hours.

The rescue team signed the bottle and gave it to Shannon to keep.

Shannon said the group she was with had been doing rock scrambling when the incident happened.

"Some of the people in my group went fast and then my friend said that there was a foot thing to put your foot, but then my foot slipped down into the hole and I got stuck," Shannon said.

"I didn't know if I was going to get out and I wanted my mum."

It was only when the washing up liquid arrived that Shannon was finally freed.

"They put some on the hands, then got it all over my leggings," she said.

"Then they put some in where I was stuck, and then they were able to slide me out."

Her mum Jessica added: "She came out happy, she came out smiling and that was down to every single person that was there in the hot temperatures keeping her upbeat and looking after her and I just cannot ever thank you enough."

Rees said it is not just his team that will be adding washing up liquid to their stocks.

He said: "Everyone who was up there all the surface teams, the fire crews, Devon Doctors and the air ambulance were all thinking 'we should get some of this as well' so it's not just our secret anymore."

DCRO added: "While rescue equipment, technical skills and teamwork all played their part, the real hero of the day may well have been a bottle of Fairy liquid, which proved invaluable in helping bring the incident to a successful conclusion.

"A fantastic example of multi-agency cooperation and a happy ending for a young adventurer."

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