Northamptonshire firefighter wins grant for animal rescue research

A firefighter has been awarded a grant to research more effective ways of rescuing animals from water.

The Churchill Fellowship grant will enable Mick Titcombe, from Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue Service, to travel to Australia and the USA to meet animal rescue experts.

"We need to integrate animal water rescue into our national operational guidance and increase our capability and knowledge," he said.

He has been a firefighter for 25 years.

Mr Titcombe is a watch commander and specialist training and national resilience co-ordinator with the Northamptonshire service.

For 19 years he worked at Wellingborough Fire Station, where some of the service's specialist animal and water rescue equipment is based, and is now in the training department.

The grant will enable him to spend 20 days in Australia, where responders have had to deal with a number of flooding disasters.

He will work with the fire service and emergency responders to find out how they manage these types of incident, and what measures and equipment they use to get the best outcome.

Mr Titcombe will then travel to the USA where he will join a three-day, multi-state simulated disaster exercise.

"The flooding experienced in the UK in recent years has already demonstrated the potential disruption we face in a changing climate," Mr Titcombe said.

"Much of the emergency response models for flooding are focused on human rescue with minimal awareness, equipment, knowledge and experience of rescuing animals from water. I want to change this."

Northamptonshire's Acting Chief Fire Officer, Simon Tuhill, said Mr Titcombe had "recognised a gap in our knowledge" and developed a proposal with the potential to improve the "operational response to animal rescues".

The Churchill Fellowship is a charity that awards grants to help people "follow their passion for change, through learning from the world and bringing that knowledge back to the UK".

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