Thought it might be of interest to anyone who went…
Raver rescued from river
By Faye Duxberry
A man plunged 30 feet from a wall and had to be rescued from rapidly rising water during an illegal rave in Brentford on Sunday.
As hundreds of revellers partied on in Gregory’s Demolition, Dock Road, Chiswick Lifeboat arrived at nearby Brentford Lock at 11.30am to find the semi-conscious man, who was hypothermic and finding it severely difficult to breathe, being held up above the water.
He had suffered extensive injuries to his face, head and shoulders after falling onto the mud.
His friend had climbed down to help him but could not do anything on his own and an hour passed before he could get anyone’s attention, by which time the tide had started to rise and he was panicking.
When the lifeboat arrived the injured man was placed onto the boat’s basket stretcher with a cervical collar and spinal board.
A Chiswick Lifeboat spokesman said: “Once on the lifeboat, volunteer crewman John Pooley, who is also a London Ambulance Service paramedic, took charge of first aid.
“A crowd of several hundred people had gathered to watch the crew at work and all cheered when the lifeboat set off with the casualty safely on board.”
The man was taken to Chiswick Pier, where he was transferred to an ambulance and taken to hospital. His friend was also treated for hypothermia.
The rave had started sometime before 1.20am on Sunday but did not end until 5pm, 15 hours after patrolling officers had discovered it.
A total of 28 calls were made to police from residents, the large majority of whom live in Augustus Close, which is among the canals behind Gregory’s Demolition.
By the time officers came across it there were already three to four hundred people at the scene and, at the party’s peak, up to 1,000 were there.
The rave was organised by mobile phone calls and texts and police received no prior warning that it was going to happen.
Tim De Meyer, Detective Chief Inspector at Hounslow CID, said: “We appreciate that this incident was a dreadful nuisance to the residents of Augustus Close, but once something like this has got going, it is safer to contain it than break it up by force.”
Mr De Meyer said this incident was a rarity as a number of impending raves have been stopped in the last year.
Brentford Safer Neighbourhood Team has been given the job of stopping an illegal rave happening again and will be co-operating with the owners of the premises used. The team can be contacted on *
I left mid-morning so I didn’t even know about this until a couple of days after
