FIVE of the six firefighters sent from West Sussex to help rescue victims of the Haiti earthquake have arrived on the island.
Fireman Brian Vincent, from Worthing, is part of a specially trained UK government response team, based at Horley fire station, who has been sent to help.
He and four other members of the team arrived on the island yesterday (Thursday, January 14
).
Their original plane that set off for Haiti from Gatwick on Wednesday was diverted to Santa Domingo airport in neighbouring Dominican Republic due to the damaged infrastructure at Porto-au-Prince airport.
A fire service spokesman said: "It was unsafe to land at night due to power supply problems for landing lights, and the control tower was badly damaged in the earthquake.
All equipment was off-loaded at Santa Domingo and all teams of UK firefighters - 19 in total - have been shuttled in to Porto-au-Prince on smaller aircraft.
Other firefighters from West Sussex that have arrived on the island are Peter Thorpe-Hinks, from Steyning, Chris Kemp, from Horsham, Mick Lewin, from Billingshurst, and Rob Negus, from Hove.
St John Stanley, from Billingshurst, is expected to fly there tonight (Friday, January 15).
Haiti was struck by an earthquake measuring 7.0 on the Richter scale on Tuesday night.
Tens of thousands of people have been killed by the earthquake and thousands more are injured.
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