Fire crew tell of Venezuela earthquake 'carnage'

Two Lincolnshire firefighters who travelled to Venezuela to help in the aftermath of last month's devastating earthquakes say they arrived to a scene of "carnage everywhere".

Darren Burchnall and Martin Lang, from Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue, were deployed to La Guaira as part of the UK International Search and Rescue (UK ISAR) team's response to the disaster.

Lang, who is based at Lincoln South fire station, said there was "carnage everywhere - every single building was damaged".

The firefighters, who have now returned to the UK, said they were proud to have been part of the deployment.

The firefighters arrived in in Venezuela on 27 June and worked in both the La Guaira and La Llanada area.

The UK sent 68 personnel, including firefighters and medical, engineering and veterinary specialists, along with six search dogs, in response to the earthquakes on 24 June.

The death toll has now risen to over 4,000 and at least 20,000 people have lost their homes.

"Quite a few buildings had structural collapses, and what we call pancake collapses, where they just drop down floor onto floor onto floor, and some of these buildings were 14, 15 stories high," Lang said.

The team carried out searches and structural assessments of hundreds of damaged buildings and determined where efforts should be focused.

"We knew there were people who were alive, but because of the amount of debris and rubble in the way, we just couldn't physically get there in time and unfortunately… people had passed on," he added.

Burchnall, who is based at Spalding fire station, said the heat and humidity in La Guaira made the job harder and described the difficulty of working in such traumatic circumstances.

"You try and sort of switch off," he said.

"You obviously feel sympathy for the people, but you try and switch off and get on with your work.

"If you overthink it, then you're not going to do your job properly."

Mark Baxter, Chief Fire Officer for Lincolnshire, said search and rescue activities were an important part of the service's duties and the teams train all year round.

The facility at Waddington near Lincoln provides a base where the firefighters hone their skills in a range of specialist areas including search and rescue.

"The conditions in Venezuela were really challenging and I want to thank all of the personnel who I know worked tirelessly during this phase of the recovery efforts," Baxter said.

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