{"id":366494,"date":"2026-01-12T17:48:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-12T17:48:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/366494\/"},"modified":"2026-01-12T17:48:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-12T17:48:08","slug":"man-trying-to-reach-island-on-inflatable-mattress-rescued-from-firth-of-forth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/366494\/","title":{"rendered":"Man trying to reach island on inflatable mattress rescued from Firth of Forth"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">A paved path, exposed at low water, allows easy access but this is covered at high tide.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The man was wearing normal clothes and was not equipped for the icy waters, which were 7C and &#8220;extremely cold&#8221;, rescuers said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The man had set off at 08:00.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Once on the lifeboat he was wrapped in warm blankets and it was &#8220;assessed that an ambulance and rapid evacuation would be required&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The lifeboat went to Granton harbour where the rescued man was picked up by the Scottish Ambulance Service crew.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Stewart Atkinson, of RNLI Queensferry Lifeboat, told BBC Scotland News: &#8220;It was lucky that we got there when we did, as the casualty was extremely cold and was drifting further offshore, with the tide and offshore wind.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;This incident highlights that blow-up toys and airbeds are designed for pools, not the sea where they can quickly be blown offshore.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;Always check the forecast and tide conditions, be aware that conditions inshore may seem fine, but further offshore they can be significantly worse.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;Always wear a personal floatation device and make sure you are also wearing clothing suitable for the forecasted weather.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A paved path, exposed at low water, allows easy access but this is covered at high tide. The&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":366495,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-366494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366494","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=366494"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366494\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/366495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=366494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=366494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=366494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}