FIRE crews from Welwyn Garden City helped out and sent pumps to douse raging forest fires in Berkshire.

Answering pleas from their Royal Berkshire counterparts, Herts firefighters deployed high volume pumps from the Welwyn Garden City station, to the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst, at 5am today (Thursday).

Eight firefighters from Welwyn Garden City, made up of whole time and retained staff were involved in the operation along with a fire officer.

The high volume pump is capable of delivering 7,000 litres of water per minute, and was taking water from a large lake within the grounds of Sandhurst and pumping it several miles through lines of hose, into the vast forest area where the fires were being fought.

Chief Fire Officer Roy Wilsher said: “We have highly skilled and experienced firefighters in Hertfordshire who are trained in using this specialist equipment.

“I am pleased that we have been able to assist our colleagues on this occasion and am proud of the professionalism of Hertfordshire firefighters in dealing with this incident.”

Welwyn Garden City station commander Rad Bristow told the Welwyn Hatfield Times: “Our volume pumps were deployed to Royal Berkshire for the wild fires.”

He added: “We’ve sent two units down there, which is all of our high volume capability.”