Thame fire officer on standby for China earthquake relief

AS the death toll in the China earthquake rises to an estimated 20,000 today, a Thame fire officer is on standby to be deployed to help, as part of an Emergency Response Team (ERT)to carry out search and rescue.
Andy Ford, Station Officer at Thame Fire Station in Neson Street, told ThameNews.Net: “I am part of ERT SAR in Henley. The unit is an NGO international search and rescue unit. We are a charity unit and are all volunteers. The team is a light Search unit specializing in medical support and rescue unit which is highly mobile and can deploy to areas where heavier rescue units can not get to initially.
“I have been part of the team for two years and we bring together a wide range of rescue and medical skills which we can use to assist in major disasters around the world.
“Due to requests for help in Pakistan for training, the Burma cyclone and the Chinese earthquake, we are all on Standby. China yesterday requested assistance through the UN and we are looking to deploy a team to part of the effected are. As for Burma, this is unlikely due to access problems but may be something we will go to later once the politics are resolved.”

“The biggest problem we have, said Andy, “is lack of funds and we are desperate to raise some money to fund the deployment of our international team. As an estimate it costs between