CORNWALL Rotarians Hugh Pendray and Martin Yeo have helped Wiltshire firefighter Simon Ruel to deliver an appliance to the volunteer fire service of Gradusa Posavska, in Croatia.

The appliance, donated by Cornwall County Fire Brigade and originally stationed at St Dennis, travelled the 1,400-plus mile journey through France, German, Austria and Slovenia, smoothly and without incident.

The team arrived in Croatia on the day that the volunteer fire service was celebrating it's 50th anniversary and they were able to attend the celebrations at the Gradusa Posavska fire station, involving not only local volunteer fire service personnel but also volunteers from the surrounding area and regular fire personnel from Sunja to the south.

Since the war in Croatia, the volunteer fire service has had little equipment and has used a tractor-drawn slurry trailer to carry water and a portable diesel pump to power their hoses.

The powerful and fully equipped Cornish appliance was received gratefully by an excited community and almost immediately used for practice, following instruction from Simon.

Commenting on their return to Cornwall, Hugh and Martin said: "It was a very worthwhile trip.

"The Gradusa Posavska fire service has been poorly equipped for many years and has been unable to secure better equipment until now.

The St Dennis engine will be well cared for and certainly put to very good use.

"The engine performed very well on its long trip and attracted a great deal of attention throughout the journey.

"It was a pleasure to see the excitement of the volunteers when the appliance was finally handed over to them."

The handing over of the fire engine represents a successful conclusion to the first part of a Rotary project involving Croatia.

The Rotary district's overseas project team will now concentrate on the second phase, which will involve the provision of a water supply to the combined fire station/ community centre at Gradusa Posavska and the installation of toilets and showers in the building, together with general remedial work and the building of a small kitchen.

The team hope to be able to accumulate both the cash and materials needed for the project over the next 2-3 months and begin work in Croatia in mid-March.