Haiti Appeal

Hampshire USAR team to raise money for DEC Haiti appeal...

21 Jan 2010

Members of Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service’s Urban Search and Rescue team will be raising money this weekend for the DEC Haiti Appeal.

Team members will be at Asda, Chandler’s Ford on Saturday, 23 January from 9am carrying out a bag pack. Additionally they will also have a display of previous deployments to disaster zones as well as answering any questions the public may have about their latest search and rescue effort in Haiti.

Three members of the Hampshire USAR team are currently in Haiti carrying out search and rescue operations to uncover survivors of last week’s devastating earthquake. These team members are Eastleigh based, Dave Heybourne and Keith Bellamy as well as Kingsclere firefighter and medic, John Taylor.

The UK search and rescue team is being coordinated by Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service with Group Manager Pete Crook heading up the team.

He said:

“As part of the United Kingdom International Search and Rescue team our firefighters are used to being deployed to disaster zones around the world, but never before have we seen a tragedy on this scale. Our team on the ground is reporting a scene of devastation as well as desperation. “As the Hampshire USAR team we want to do more to assist with this humanitarian crisis which is why we will be at Asda on Saturday, with every penny raised going to the DEC Haiti Earthquake Appeal.”

Hampshire’s firefighters in Haiti are just three of a larger group of 64 deployed to the country as part of the UK ISAR team.

Nine Fire and Rescue Services around the UK have sent urban search and rescue specialists, including West Sussex, Kent, Lincolnshire, West Midlands, South Wales, Mid and West Wales, Lancashire, Greater Manchester and Hampshire Fire and Rescue Services. All members are search and rescue specialists and each team also has at least one medic.

They are working under guidance from the United Nations and Department for International Development (DfID). It is not yet known how long the UK team will remain in Haiti.

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