UK Firefighters Join Floods Rescue In Balkans

By Tom Parmenter, Sky News Correspondent in Bijeljina, Bosnia

British firefighters are providing a "lifeline" for flood survivors in the Balkans' worst natural disaster in living memory.

A team of 33 men and women from all over the UK have been working around the clock near the devastated communities close to the Bosnian city of Bijeljina.

The crews have been helping in small rural villages and have pulled 142 people to safety since they arrived.

Three men waiting to be rescued at a block of flats

Team leader Nick Searle from Merseyside Fire and Rescue told Sky News: "It is a huge job but we have an enormous amount of experience between us.

"This is the first time we have been deployed to an overseas flooding disaster and we have brought four inflatable boats and have set up a command and control base."

Inside one of the villages, one resident said the British crews were the first outsiders they had seen.

It will be a long time before the flood water recedes

Cheshire firefighter Paul Bickerton told Sky News: "The area that is underwater is staggering - as is the isolation.

"When they are thanking you for saving their lives it is brilliant to see."

Lincolnshire firefighter Chris Lowe has worked in the recent flooding in Somerset and the Thames Valley, but said: "This is on a different level. Some locals have decided to stay in their homes.

Men feed pigs stranded on the roof of a house

"In one village a family have decided to stay in their flooded bakery with three young children. They are stranded but it is their livelihood so they are adamant they want to stay."

The British team dropped off water, milk and some sweets for the young children.

"We are their only link to the outside world," Mr Lowe added.

The fire crews expect to be working in the villages for another week but the recovery in the disaster zones will take far longer.

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