A team of firefighters from East Sussex Fire & Rescue Service will begin a humanitarian trip to Macedonia this weekend to donate two fire appliances to the small towns of Kavadarci and Rankovce.

Firefighters Chris Freeman, Matt Hitam and Nick Mathews will leave Crowborough community fire station on Saturday 2nd May on a trip that will see them arrive in the towns on the following Thursday.

The trip is in partnership with Operation Florian, a UK Fire Service Humanitarian Charity that works to promote the protection of life amongst worldwide communities in need of equipment and training to improve fire fighting and rescue capabilities.

The charity is run almost entirely by volunteers most of w hom are members of the emergency services.

The country of Macedonia will benefit greatly from East Sussex Fire & Rescue Service's donation. Some towns in the country have not received any fire fighting equipment for 15 years and call upon volunteers and local residents to assist in the event of a fire or rescue. Some areas do not even have access to vital breathing apparatus. For Rankovce, the nearest fire appliance is located over 20 miles away.

Accompanied by Bruce Hoad and Trevor Green of the National Association of Retired Firefighters, the firefighters will assist in a two-week training period designed to teach new techniques and skills to the firefighters of Macedonia.

Trevor Green said: "We are very grateful Mr Des Prichard, Chief Officer of East Sussex Fire & Rescue Service, who has kindly donated this fire equipment to Operation Florian. The equipment is being driven to Macedonia by a team of serving East Sussex firefighters.

The Uckfield Lions Club has made a very generous donation to the transport costs and the fire appliances will display the Lions' motif during the journey across Europe."