ESSEX firefighters and their trusted rescue dog Darcy have returned home after spearheading a search and rescue campaign in earthquakestruck Nepal.

The team was part of a group of 60 rescuers connected to the UK International Search and Rescue.

They deployed for ten days and the majority of the team hiked to remote settlements to assess villages.

Firefighters Tim Hersey, Gregory Kench and Nick Manning, all from Colchester, joined Martin Stoker, from Clacton, and Mark Sladden, from Southend, in the humanitarian effort in the devastated Far East country.

Dog handler John Ball, along with ten-year-old border collie Darcy, also deployed alongside the team.

The pair were in the first team on the scene in Chautara, north east of Kathmandu to look for survivors, but unfortunately were not able to find any.

Mr Ball, who lives in Ipswich, said: “We were the first team to get there because landslides had blocked the roads.

“The amount of damage to buildings was prolific.

“It was total devastation in some places.

“It was strange because some areas of Kathmandu didn’t seem to be affected at all.”

Darcy’s special skill is to detect the scent of a live human.

Once Darcy finds a scent, another dog is brought in to confirm it and rescue work begins.

In open terrain, she can pick up a scent up to 400m away.

In rubble, that distance is shortened to one building storey.

Mr Ball said although parts of the country have been devastated, there is no doubt the Nepalese people will rebuild.

He added: “The people are so resilient.

“They were literally pulling possessions out of what was left of the houses and looking around to see where they could re-build.”

While Mr Ball and Darcy were searching rubble, the other men trekked for hours each day in temperatures of up to 27C and 78 per cent humidity, to get to remote villages.

They assessed people’s injuries, how many homes had been lost and how many people had been displaced.

Mr Stoker said: “Everywhere we went, they were really pleased to see us.

“The first thing we always did was find the village elder, tell him why we were there and what we could do.”

The main injuries the team came up against in the villages were broken bones and infection, which meant creating makeshift splints – sometimes by cutting up plastic bottles – and administering antibiotics.

The Nepal earthquake killed more than 8,000 people and injured more than 16,000. It happened on April 25.