Quickline’s UK Full Fibre Engineers Rescue Man from River Trent

Two engineers working for UK broadband ISP Quickline, which is rolling out a new gigabit-capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network to 96 rural locations (55,000 premises) across North East England, have been praised after their quick-thinking saved the life of a man who fell into the River Trent.

Peter Etchell, 61, was mowing the lawn at the bottom of his riverside garden when the ground beneath him gave way and he fell more than 10ft down into the River Trent. Now trapped in waist-deep water and unable to pull himself up and out of the river due to the steep, slippery and muddy ground, Peter’s predicament soon worsened after his wife, Cath, struggled to rescue him.

At this point Cath ran to the front of their house in West Butterwick, near Scunthorpe, North Lincolnshire, to seek help and spotted Quickline engineers Mike Anscombe and Wesley Naulls, who were on their lunch break when she approached them. The pair sprang into action and rushed to Peter’s aid, throwing a rope down the river bank before hauling him to safety.

Peter, who runs the Trents Motorhome and Campervan Hire business, spent more than 15 minutes in the cold water and said without the intervention of Mike and Wesley, the situation could have turned “catastrophic”. “My wife and I would not have managed it without Mike and Wesley and I would definitely have slipped further into the river if they hadn’t come to my aid. Mike and Wesley have my eternal thanks and gratitude,” said Peter.

Quickline’s Chief Operating Officer, Lee Allison, said:

“This is an incredible story and we’re all rightfully proud at Quickline of how Mike and Wesley responded to what was a very serious situation. Their decisive actions helped rescue Peter and prevent him from spending longer in the cold water of the Trent. We’re pleased that Mike and Wesley were in the area at the time of the accident and were on hand to assist.”

The operator, fuelled by an investment of £500m from Northleaf Capital Partners, currently holds an aspiration to cover 500,000 premises in UK rural and semi-rural areas with “ultrafast broadband” via both Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) and 5G based fixed wireless infrastructure “by 2025” (here) – see their deployment plan. So far they already claim to have covered 300,000 premises via their wireless network, while their much more recent full fibre deployment has covered 10,000 premises across over 20 rural communities (Dec 2022).