Charity Supports Emergency Services with Thousands of Meals During Major Fire Responses
Firefighters battling blazes across the UK and France are being supported with meals and refreshments served by volunteers of the Rapid Relief Team (RRT).
The charity has served more than 15,000 hot meals, snacks and refreshments to emergency services as they work tirelessly to bring wildfires under control amid continuing heatwaves.
It has mobilised at incidents in Suffolk, on the Isle of Wight, in the Peak District, Oxfordshire, the West Midlands, North Wales and several other locations across the UK. Volunteers in France have also supported firefighters and communities affected by wildfires in Gironde and Var.
Most recently, more than 175 volunteers supported emergency services responding the wildfires in Suffolk, serving 2,900 meals and refreshments to emergency responders over nine days.
More than 600 volunteers have been providing practical support to firefighters and other emergency responders working in difficult conditions to protect communities.
This has ranged from hot burger meals and breakfast rolls to cold drinks, snacks and practical care kits.
The charity’s largest UK operation has been in the Peak District, where volunteers arranged around 4,600 meals across 40 services at Tintwistle and Dovestone Reservoir.
Meanwhile, in France, RRT teams have mobilised across several locations to support emergency services and communities affected by wildfires in Gironde and Var.
Teams from Nîmes, Alès, Saint-Étienne and Lyon prepared and transported 1,800 care kits, alongside 1,530 snack packs for people evacuated to the Bordeaux Exhibition Centre.
Volunteers have also provided 2,500 hot meals, snacks and barista coffees at Mérignac fire station, while in Var, volunteers delivered 2,500 snack packs, 1,500 bottles of water and 40 five-litre water containers to support emergency responders.
More than 600 meals were served across three days to crews tackling a gorse fire at Headon Warren on the Isle of Wight, while in Norfolk more than 270 meals were served across three separate incidents.
Twelve mobile homes and eight caravans went up in flames in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, and within 45 minutes of receiving the request volunteers from the RRT had deployed to support the emergency services with refreshments through the night and breakfast for 100 responders the following morning.
At a recycling plant fire in Widnes, volunteers served 400 burger meals to emergency responders, while 90 meals were provided to crews tackling a field fire in Croxley Green, Hertfordshire.
Volunteers have also been on site supporting around 330 responders at incidents in Coventry, Nuneaton in Warwickshire, Romsey in Hampshire, Talacre in North Wales and Stallingborough in Lincolnshire.
The RRT, which is formed of volunteers from the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church, has over 10 years’ experience supporting emergency services and vulnerable communities across the UK and worldwide.
“These fires have been fast-moving and unpredictable, with firefighters and other emergency responders working long hours in some of the harshest conditions to protect people, homes and communities. “This has been a major operation for RRT, with volunteers mobilising across the UK and France to provide practical support wherever it has been needed, and doing so as quickly as we are able to. “Our role is to give those working on the frontline a hot meal, a thank you and a moment of respite before they return to the vital task of keeping communities safe.”
Ross Norman
Operations Manager at Rapid Relief Team UK
