Gosport and Fareham lifeboat service had busiest year in over a decade in 2022

GAFIRS, which stands for Gosport and Fareham Inshore Rescue Service, is an independent lifeboat and inshore rescue service charity that attended 135 incidents in 2022, which was their busiest year in 12 years.

SEE ALSO: Ghost unmasked on The Masked Singer to reveal former Portsmouth FC player and Sky Sports pundit

The charity, which is run entirely by volunteers, assisted 171 people and saved the lives of eight people last year.

GAFIRS listed April as a particularly busy month for the service as the team attended 14 different incidents, with five incidents occurring within a three-day period.

Most notable of these incidents was when the service saved the lives of two children, who found themselves in trouble in the water.

A spokesman for the service said: ‘This year has seen a continuation of a trend for us, which started during the Covid-19 lockdown periods, away from dealing with mechanical failures and move towards incidents with swimmers, kayakers, wind surfers, kite surfers and paddle boarders in difficulties.

‘A sad but notable feature of the year was that we were tasked to assist at 12 incidents involving distressed persons in the water or at risk of entering the water.’

With the temperature rise in July and August last year, the service was called out to 50 incidents. One of these comprised of a lifeboat plucking a person who was in trouble in the water at the entrance of Portsmouth Harbour.

SEE ALSO: Man forced to escape Portsmouth house after 'big fire' reveals sadness as cat dies and home 'destroyed'

It was at roughly the same time when volunteers were scrambled to rescue two people from a burning boat, which eventually sunk off Southsea. On January 1 this year, the service hosted their annual New Year’s Day Swim, which occurred at the lifeboat station based at Stoked Bay, Gosport.

Participating swimmers entered the chilly water at midday, in an effort to raise money for GAFIRS themselves and for other organisations.

Since GAFIRS is not a part of the RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institution), they rely on the generosity of the local community to raise funds to enable it to launch it lifeboats. The service has two lifeboats – one at Stokes Bay and the other at Premier Marina, by Gosport’s waterfront.