|
A blaze at a nearby car scrapyard blocked the main A37, meaning that buses from the local railway station could not ferry people to the site. Eight Red Cross volunteers responded at Castle Cary train station, providing first aid and emotional support.
Once the road block was cleared, an accident involving a lorry blocked it again. Volunteers stayed to support 600 people at Castle Cary station until midnight when the last bus left.
Volunteers at Glastonbury festival
Team leader Graham Kerridge said: “People have been arriving at the station and getting off the trains but there’s nowhere for them to go because the buses can’t get through. Things got quite worrying earlier this afternoon when we must have had about 1,000 people stranded at the station in really hot sunshine. But now they’ve managed to stop the trains from coming in and the police have arranged for buses to be escorted through the blocked road.”
Graham continued: “We were asked to provide first aid but we’ve been helping supply bottled water and generally providing support and information in what must feel like quite a confusing time.
“Each year we provide first aid support at Castle Cary, usually as festival-goers are going home – bad weather in the past has meant people have been at risk from hypothermia and dehydration, but this is a first! Of course, we’ll be back early next week to help out as we do every year.”
More about our emergency response work
Become an emergency response volunteer | 
