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I have been involved in capacity building in Nepal ever since I was deployed on behalf of the UK Government’s official disaster response to the 2015 Nepal Earthquake as a member of the United Kingdom International Search and Rescue Team. This deployment had a profound effect on me and I vowed to return to the country to better prepare the Nepalese for future disasters, returning nine times over the past decade with repurposed equipment and teams of instructors to deliver training.
Along with Fire Aid and International Development volunteers I have trained the British Ghurkhas, Nepal Armed Police Force Municipal Fire services, Nepal Rescue Battalion and in recent years, along with my dedicated team, have founded Everest Fire and Rescue, the official emergency service of the Everest region of Nepal. Catherine Levin wrote about this for Emergency Services Times in June 2024.
Following the successful Fire Aid Nepal mission of March 2024 my team and I returned to Nepal in November 2024, where I led a training team of 10 multi-disciplined personnel from Fire service, Mountain Rescue and the NHS.
On request from the Nepal Armed Police Force, I organised for three of my ten-person strong team to travel to Kurintar Disaster Training Academy, to train 15 Officers in a pilot two-week Urban Search and Rescue training course. This course was a success and will lead to future collaboration with the NAPF in disaster preparedness.
The training took over a year to arrange and had passed through a diplomatic process involving the British embassy and Nepal Government. There is a lot of work that goes on in the background including budgets, logistics, risk assessments, multiple meetings, feasibility studies and reports to gain official approval for our projects to take place. It’s not just a case of rocking up and training.
Boosting fire capability in Everest
My main task when in the country is to develop and train Everest Fire and Rescue. As with other tasks managed in the project, months of preparation goes into making the training a reality. Most of my free time during the year is spent in meetings, looking for project funding, writing reports, risk assessments and organising logistics for shipping search and rescue equipment thousands of miles across the globe to one of the most remote locations on the planet.
Along with personal funding for flights I have organised fundraising and worked closely with Fire Aid Vice Chair Claire Hoyland to pursue major funding for the logistical expenditure of getting equipment to extremely hard to reach places and to bring plans for new fire stations to fruition.
My family and friends have accused me of being obsessed with the project and I agree, I tell them that I must be to make it happen. Nepal has a hook in me that keeps pulling me back.
Over four weeks at the end of 2024, the team trained 166 new firefighters and delivered 3.5 tons of medical, search and rescue equipment to the villages of Lukla 2860m, Namche 3440m and Dinboche 4410m, previously established over the past two years, and four new villages Phakding 2610m, Monjo 2835m, Charikharka 2700m, and Chukhung 4730m (now the highest fire station in the world).
Supported by the Khumbu Pasanglhamu Rural Municipality, the 3.5 ton of kit from the UK reached Lukla by fixed wing, it was all carried by an army of porters up the trail as far as Chukhung at 4730m. Although helicopter transport was a viable option, I decided at an early stage of planning that that the project needed to reduce its carbon footprint and as far as possible, walking on foot would be our preferred method of transport. Operating at altitude and in cold conditions for a prolonged period is extremely challenging on the body. The team had the advantage of two experienced and equipped doctors and two medics to look after health and wellbeing.
As well as looking after the team and training local firefighters in trauma care our doctors also trained 220 school children in first aid and CPR, a vital skill in rural areas where there is limited availability of local health care practitioners. Training firefighters in trauma care is critical as there is little point in being equipped and skilled in rescue if you are then unable to treat your casualty. The addition of our donated trauma kits including defibrillators to villages further enhances the safety of local inhabitants and the thousands of tourists and porters travelling though the area every year.
Climate change impacts
The effects of climate change is ever present in the Khumbu, monsoon season extending weeks past its normal end in October and the glaciers that have been relied on for generations are now receding at an exponential rate with the prospect of water running out in the future very real.
The village of Thame was all but wiped out in a recent glacier burst that tore through the village burying buildings, creating sink holes and landslides making the area uninhabitable. One of our team Doctors Matthew Lee who specialises in the effects of climate change, joined a team of geologists surveying the village of Thame and surrounding glaciers to assess the damage and potential impact of further floods.
Dr Lee is writing a paper on climate change in the Khumbu and will share the results with the Khumbu Pasanglhamu Rural Municipality. This study will form part of Everest Fire and Rescue disaster management plan for the area. At the heart of capacity building is enabling and empowering local communities to prepare for the worst and what is to come. Having an insight into the effects of climate change and being able to forecast and monitor will further enhance the survivability chances of the inhabitants at the time of disaster.
Future programmes will include the use of drones to aid rescue at high altitude, missing persons search, wildfire and glacier lake-burst monitoring.
We are currently planning two training for missions for 2025 which will coincide with the 10th anniversary of the devastating Nepal Earthquake of the 25th of April 2015 in which I started my journey helping the people of Nepal.
If you would like to support Fire Aid and International Development’s Fire Aid Nepal Project please click here.
