A BRAVE Dudley firefighter has spoken out about the last 11 “horrific” days he spent searching for survivors in Haiti.

Burton Road station’s Blue Watch commander Russell Gauden, was part of the West Midlands Fire Service’s International Search and Rescue team who flew out to the Caribbean country just hours after the devastating earthquake hit.

And the 38-year-old has been speaking to the News about how the desperate mission unfolded, without even time to phone his family or work colleagues.

Russ, who has been a firefighter for 16 years, said: “I got a pager message at 12.20am on January 13, saying there had been an earthquake and to standby in case of further assistance. Then a few hours later I got another one saying it was full deployment.

“I picked up my bag and opened the front door and there was loads of snow. We made our way to Gatwick and were flown straight to Santo Domingo. We were on the road within four hours of the earthquake.

“There wasn’t even time to ring my mum and dad, I just had to send a quick text to say where I was.”

Russ, who was on his first deployment, added: “We just hit the ground running. There were desperate people everywhere looking for help and you just can’t comprehend the sights and smells. It was horrific.”

The West Midlands 15-strong team took part in several different rescues and were part of the team who found two-year-old Mia after three days trapped in rubble, as well as being flown by military helicopter to uncovered areas.

Russ said: “The only way I can describe it is that it was like being on a film set of a disaster movie. There were dead people all over the place.

“We worked on one supermarket for two days as people were trapped inside. We had to tunnel down the aisles and you came across deceased people and had to carry on tunnelling.”

“It will be the smells which stick out for me. The smells of deceased people and food going off in the supermarket, it was horrific and will stay with me for a long time.”

And 12 of the team returned home on Saturday, to a heroes’ welcome with loved ones at Solihull Fire Station.

Russ, who was met by his proud mum and dad, Keith and Rita, said: “I was asked to stay on for a bit longer, but I wanted to come home with the rest of the team.

“I have enormous amount of pride and satisfaction about the last 11 days. By the time we got to Haiti people had been stuck underneath rubble for days. It was unbelievable to find people alive after all that time, but I am immensely proud of being a little part of the UK representation.”

And Russ said it was a “surreal experience” to return to his Kinver home and admitted he hasn’t been able to watch any of the unfolding devastation on the television yet.

“All I’ve done is walk into Kinver and buy a newspaper, it is really surreal being back home, being back to safety and away from the spiders, which were as big as saucers, and all I’ve been doing is sleeping at the moment and getting ready for work as usual on Thursday morning.”

To make a donation towards the aid effort visit the Disasters Emergency Committee website at dec.org.uk or call 0370 60 60 900.