A FIREFIGHTER has spoken of the devastation he found when he flew out to help victims of Hurricane Irma.

West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service fire officer Phil Maynard, 45, used the skills he has gained while working in Mid Sussex to volunteer his time in the British Virgin Islands.

Mr Maynard took annual leave to travel out with the charity Team Rubicon, which uses the skills of military and 999 workers to provide relief to those affected by disaster.

He spent four days working at the team’s mission hub in Wiltshire to co-ordinate the effort before flying out to the Caribbean at the beginning of the month.

The charity sent more than 60 people to help some of the worst-hit islands.

Mr Maynard said: “Team Rubicon achieved a lot through collaboration with the military and other charity organisations, including the provision of clean water and repairs to property and infrastructure.

“After training, eight of us flew to Antigua, as that was the nearest flight we could get, before splitting up and travelling on to Tortola and Virgin Gorda.

“I initially went to Tortola and, as you came in to land, you could see all of these up-turned boats and ferries.

“The main road was devastated and there were cars smashed to pieces.

“In many of the poorer areas people had been living in shacks that were just blown apart. They lost everything.”

Mr Maynard, who has volunteered with the charity for 18 months, then travelled to Virgin Gorda.

Here, his incident command experience was used to help mentor a team and do specific tasks.

He said: “We carried out running repairs to schools, making them safe from things like hanging metal and pumping out flooded classrooms and cleaning away mould to help make the buildings useable again.

“Lots of people who had lost their homes were sheltering in school buildings.

“We helped them move back to where they lived to set the schools up for teaching again.

“We also worked with the airport fire service to carry out roof repairs at the terminal and replace broken doors and windows.

“There were frustrations, seeing extreme wealth alongside extreme poverty, and the government there doesn’t have enough money to get everything back to normal.

“However the positives far outweighed the negatives.

“There were times where strangers were hugging us or bringing us food to thank us.”

Since its inception in 2015 Team Rubicon UK has deployed 160 volunteers to 14 international operations, and 3 UK domestic operations, and Phil is planning to set aside two weeks of his annual leave for the charity every year.

To find out more visit the Team Rubicon website - www.teamrubiconuk.org - where you can also donate directly to Team Rubicon’s hurricane relief effort.