A FIREFIGHTER from Salisbury has been deployed to Nepal’s earthquake zone as part of the search and rescue organisation Serve On, which is based at Salisbury fire station.

Dan Cooke, station manager at Salisbury, is part of an eight person team sent by Serve On to Nepal yesterday morning (26 April).

The team have travelled with the equipment needed to locate signs of life underneath collapsed buildings and then safely recover people who have been trapped.

Each team member is self-sufficient, carrying all of their own food and equipment, and they have the capability to provide other rescuers or the affected community with up to 8,000 litres of safe filtered water to drink each day.

The team is due to arrive in Nepal later today and expect to get to work straight away under the direction of the local co-ordination centre.

Whilst much of the rescue effort is currently in Kathmandu, Serve On will be well placed to extend the search into the remote rural areas that have also been affected.

Chief Fire Officer Simon Routh-Jones said: “We have a number of firefighters involved with Serve On, and we have always been proud to release them whenever they are called upon to help those in need, as long as their absence can be managed locally.

"The scenes of devastation in Nepal have been chilling, and we send our best wishes to Dan, his Serve On colleagues, and the many other search and rescue specialists who have deployed from Fire & Rescue Services across the country to support this rescue mission.”

Serve On is a registered charity, which relies on donations from the public to enable its disaster response activity both overseas and in local communities.

To support this fundraising, another Wiltshire firefighter and Serve On member, Stuart Hillier, ran the London Marathon on Sunday with his wife Amy and friends.

Stuart is an on-call firefighter in Pewsey and has deployed to various disasters around the world over the years in his role with the charity.

For more information about Serve On, visit www.serveon.org.uk