Expert ready to rescue

A Rochdale fire chief attended an international earthquake exercise just days before the devastating earthquake in Italy.

Deputy Borough Commander Peter Stevenson, from Royton but based at Rochdale Fire Station, attended the United Nations earthquake exercise last week.

As the UK’s International Search and Rescue’s representative, he joined fire officers from 30 countries in practising emergency responses in Yerevan, the capital of Armenia.

Just days later, an earthquake measuring 6.3 in strength hit the Abruzzo region on Monday, killing more than 270 people.

Mr Stevenson (48), said: “Exactly the processes we ran through would have been implemented in Italy.

“The country has 7,000 rescuers within Italy who have gone to L’Aquila, the town badly affected by the earthquake, which is similar in size to Heywood.

“They can adequately cope with the rescuers they’ve got.

“The Italian government did not request any international search and rescue assistance, although we continue to monitor the situation.”

Mr Stevenson is one of the three UK international team leaders and is on stand by to attend any humanitarian disaster that occur in the world.

He responded to the Pakistan earthquake in October 2005 in which 27 rescues were carried out by the international search and rescue teams.

As part of the UN exercise, representatives from 30 countries — including Columbia, Brazil, Spain and Germany — attended the week-long event.

Host country Armenia is particularly prone to natural disasters with earthquakes striking on average every 10 years, although the last major quake occurred in 1988.

He said: “The UN exercise provided a valuable opportunity for all nations to come together and practise the emergency response to an earthquake.”