FIRE OFFICER Andy Pike has returned from a trip to New York to offer support to the city's devastated fire department.

Andy lives in Swindon's Old Town but works as station commander with the London Fire Brigade in Chelsea.

Just like Swindon's firefighters, the capital's crews have forged strong links with their New York colleagues over the past few years and recently raised £255,000 to help the families of those who perished.

During his 10-day trip, Andy presented the money raised and handed over a mounted fireman's axe from the 1930s as a symbol of support.

He arrived on October 25 and went to Ladder 175/Engine 332, which he has visited several times since 1995. The station is in the busy Brownsville area of Brooklyn. While he was there he attended several funerals, including that of Captain Jonathon Ielpi from Squad 288, whose body has not been found. Andy said: "I spent a week with these guys in 1998 so it was a bit close to home.

"The captain I went with knew the family, so we were invited inside the church. Lots of people were asking where I was from and then said thank you, and thanks for helping.

"The service was very emotional. The emotions broke when Captain Ielpi's eight-year-old son took the pulpit and gave a reading about his dad and how he missed him and prayed that they would find his body.

"It broke everyone's heart. I thought of my daughters, Kirsty and Chloe, doing the same."

When Andy visited Ground Zero the devastated site of the World Trade Centre collapse he said it was a shocking experience. "The first thing I noticed was the smell of burning and dust in the air. I'd been to the World Trade Centre a couple of times before but words or pictures cannot describe the sight that met my eyes.

"Surrounding buildings had been gouged from top to bottom as the towers collapsed, brown fumes were seeping out from the ground in places and smoke was still rising."

He said while he was there, a fire tunic was found on the site. "We dug by hand to slowly uncover the rest of the firefighter. It took seven hours to get the body ready for removal.

"It broke my heart to see him there and his fellow firefighters protecting his body with their own as the steel cutters cut away surrounding metalwork. He was identified as coming from Engine 214 and his company came to remove him, which is tradition going back 200 years. They placed him on a stretcher and covered him with the American flag.

"We then formed a two row honour guard to the awaiting ambulance and saluted him until he had left the site.

"It was the toughest thing I have ever done in 20 years in the fire service and I class it as one of life's changing experiences, but I am glad that I was there to be able to help."