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FROM THE
MASTER’S DESK
Two UK International Search and
Rescue Teams receive the
Worshipful Company of
Firefighters Award of 2011.
The “Worshipful Company of Firefighters
Award” (WCFF) was set up three years ago to
recognise and honour any individual firefighter,
firefighting team, company or organisation that
has displayed courage, initiative, high professional
standards or humanitarian actions for the good of
the community, the country or for the benefit of
mankind.
This simple but sincere award, consisting of a
Commendation and Citation certificate, is
presented at our Annual St. Florian’s Dinner
In order to determine who the awards should go
to, the WCFF seeks guidance from the Chief Fire
Officer’s Association who make a suitable
recommendation. This year, Chief Fire Officer
Lee Howell, President of CFOA, made those
recommendations.
It is always difficult to select between one or
more organisations, so this year we presented
two awards, both of which recognized the
service to humanity given by the UK’s
International Search and Rescue Teams.
UK-ISAR is a co-operative group of UK fire and
rescue services and other organisations which
respond primarily to overseas urban search and
rescue emergencies on behalf of the UK
government.
Readers will doubtless be aware of the two
devastating natural disasters which occurred
earlier this year, the Earthquake and Tsunami in
Japan and the Earthquake in Christchurch, New
Zealand. We are sure that none could even begin
to imagine the conditions and circumstances
which those rescuers found themselves in as they
arrived to help.
Many, who served in the fire brigade many years
ago, will remember that the level of equipment
immediately available for use at non-fire incidents
comprised little more than a fire appliance tool-
kit, hacksaw and crow-bar. However, since
those early days fire brigades, as they were
known then, have developed into “Fire and
Rescue” Services and widened their expertise to
a level of competence that at one time we could
only have ever dreamed of!
Both the UK ISAR Teams presented with the
WCFF 2011 Award clearly represented their
profession and country very well, but more
importantly carried out humanitarian services in
some very difficult and dangerous circumstances.
The first award went to UK the team which
attended the emergency in Japan.
The earthquake struck at 1446 hours local time
on Friday, 11th March 2011. The quake, together
with the tsunami which followed, left a trail of
devastation across a wide area of north-eastern
Japan, in particular the towns of Ofunato and
Kaimaishi where tens of thousands of people
were reported to be missing.
Repeated quakes with a magnitude of 6.6 were
experienced every 30 to 60 minutes, landslides
occurred in several areas, roads, bridges and
railways were destroyed over some 460
locations in the region. Despite an extensive
search of both towns and their surrounding
areas, Japanese rescuers had found no survivors.
An additional hazard, relating to the stability of
the Fukushima Nuclear plant some 120 km away,
needed to be monitored and contended with.
The 63 strong UK-ISAR team sent to Japan
comprised search and rescue personnel from
across the UK, with two search and rescue dogs
and some 11 tonnes of equipment.
Upon arrival they acted on a direct request from
the Japanese authorities, spending three full days
searching those particular towns. Using their
specialist search equipment and rescue dogs,
they worked quickly and tirelessly to search for
any survivors.
Despite the very cold and harsh conditions the
search for survivors in the utter devastation of
the earthquake and tsunami continued. In doing
this they provided much needed relief to Japan’s
own exhausted disaster teams.
The team sent to Japan was lead by CFO Roy
Wilsher, of the Hertfordshire Fire & Rescue
Service, and so he received the award on behalf
of all those that helped at that emergency.
2
Master Firefighter,
Peter Cowland
presents the award
to CFO Roy Wilsher.