STOURBRIDGE firefighters say their hearts went out to victims of the Nepal earthquake following their mission to help save lives in the stricken country as part of international search and rescue efforts.

Firefighter David Heywood, from Stourbridge Fire Station, Bickenhill station commander Dean Harris and Solihull watch commander Dean Yates, who both live in Stourbridge, were among nine West Midlands firefighters deployed as part of a UK International Search and Rescue mission after the 7.8 quake hit 80k northwest of Nepal's capital Kathmandu on April 25.

Commanders Harris and Yates, both firefighters for more than 20 years, have been on numerous deployments with the team including to Japan in 2011 after the country was hit by both an earthquake and tsunami.

But for David - it was his first UKISAR mission.

The 41-year-old father-of-one, however, said he was well-prepared for deployment to the disaster zone where thousands died and many more were injured.

He told the News: "It’s something I’ve always wanted to do since I joined the fire service.

"I spent nine years in the army and I’ve got a good support network with my wife and daughter at home.

"It was quite a shock to the system to see the devastation but it’s something you’ve got to do, you’ve only got so many days to help people.

"You feel for the people that live there – the Nepalese are fantastic people."

Station commander Harris, aged 48, said working with the British Gurkhas the team managed to reach more remote mountainside locations where no search and rescue teams had been to at that point but what they were faced with was almost total devastation.

He said: "A lot of these villages suffered 90 to 100 per cent destruction to all the buildings - and they’re cut off because they’re so remote."

Mr Harris, a father-of-two, said the team had just ten days to search for survivors, recover the bodies of lost loved ones, attempt to make buildings safe and provide shelter and medical relief for wounded communities.

He added: "We didn't find anybody alive in the rubble on this occasion, it was total collapse; so we quite quickly focussed on the ongoing needs of the community."

Mr Harris, previously station commander at Cradley Heath, said many survivors had suffered "some fairly traumatic injuries" and he continued: "Many suffered crush injuries, breaks and lacerations.

"One man in his 80s or 90s had walked for seven days with an horrific head injury trying to get to a medical centre. His skull had been fractured and was deeply infected and he’d walked in 40 degree heat, over terrain most people can’t imagine."

Watch commander Yates, who worked at the new Haden Cross Fire Station until February, added: "We saw children with quite severe injuries still carrying on, still with a smile on their face."

The 44-year-old father-of-two was among team-mates who helped to make safe a hospital that had been virtually abandoned after the quake left a 15-tonne concrete tower overhanging the entrance.

He said: "It was all very precarious and very dangerous. We secured it with ropes and winches and tied it to the building so it couldn’t slip. All the time the work was being carried out we were having aftershocks. At the time the hospital was only able to work with 15 to 30 patients - the worst cases. That went up to 800, but it was only a temporary fix."

He said the team members were surviving on as little as two hours sleep a day and he praised the efforts of UKISAR members back home who worked from the incident command room, run by West Midlands Fire Service in Birmingham, to co-ordinate the entire UK search and rescue mission in Nepal.

He said: "The chaps that are left behind have a lot of hard work to do at HQ. They're the unsung heroes, often putting in 12-hour shifts in addition to their own working shifts."

The team, deployed by the Department for International Development, returned home last Wednesday (May 6) but despite being back in the comfort of their own homes the brave firefighters say they remain worried about how Nepal will cope as the weeks pass - especially after being hit by a further quake, measuring 7.3 on the Richter scale, on Tuesday.

Mr Harris said: "The potential for an even greater humanitarian disaster is looming - they’re three weeks away from monsoon season and the vast majority of people in the rural areas have been displaced; medical facilities are pretty much under tarpaulin, and many don't even have access to fresh water. It’s going to take a concerted global effort to help people survive.

"It’s unlike Japan as it’s impoverished; Nepal is the fourth poorest country on earth."

Anyone wishing to make a donation towards relief efforts can do so online at www.dec.org.uk