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Peaceful start to Easter for the Red Cross

Rescue exercise with Red CrossGol. Rescue exercise with the Red Cross. : Arild Blomkvist/Røde Kors / NTB scanpix

Not too many heading into the mountains and varying weather has given over 1,200 Red Cross volunteers a quiet start to the week of Easter.

So far, the Red Cross has had seven requests for fetches, four searches for missing people and treated thirteen injuries. This is lower than at the same time last year, when the count showed eleven fetch requests and forty-one injuries.

– It has been a very quiet Saturday at the information centre. It suggests that not so many have found their way to the slopes yet, says the Guard Leader, Ole Gladsø.

Friday an avalanche exercise was carried out on Golsfjellet. Minister of Justice and Preparedness, Per-Willy Amundsen (Progress Party), participated together with Red Cross volunteers, the Norwegian Rescue Dogs Association, local police and a Sea King helicopter from the 330 squadron.

– The volunteers are essential for preparedness. The status is far better in Norway than in other countries. There is no reason to change the recipe when the voluntary spirit is so high, the Minister said.

More than 1,200 volunteers are standing by on heightened readiness and deployed at over 150 duty stations and huts across the country when people will swarm into the mountains in the Easter weekend.

 

Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today