A TAVISTOCK fireman boarded a 'plane to Colombia last week, on his way to help train that country's growing band of volunteer fire-fighters.

Phil Griffiths is part of a team from Devon Fire and Rescue that will be spending the next month teaching Colombian 'Bomberos' how to use new equipment already provided by the British Government.

Phil was asked to join the five man team because of his wide experience — during the day he is a full-time fireman in Plympton and when he returns home to Tavistock, he is on-call for the local volunteer crew.

Phil said: 'I love being a fireman. There's no better way to spend your days off — playing your part in the community, and it's a great station here, with a great team.'

Phil has some experience of the work he will be doing in Colombia — he helped train volunteer firefighters on Lundy Island.

'And this seemed like a wonderful opportunity to do something positive in another country,' he said.

The Columbian team is led by Mike White.

'He started all this two or three years ago — he is the key motivator,' said Phil.

'He'd been out there and saw some places were in desperate need — we felt we were in a position to make a difference.'

But this trip is not going to be any Sunday School outing.

'It's going to be a magnificent adventure — hard work, but quite an experience,' he said. 'It's quite an intimidating country, with a very high crime rate — every three hours someone is kidnapped and there are 24 murders a day — and a lot of corruption, but that makes it more of a challenge, more of an adventure.'

Meanwhile two members of the Tavistock crew left the service recently, having notched up more than 25 years between them.

Mark Buckley, to further his full-time job, is undertaking a course of further education at Plymouth College of Further Education and Clive Piper is moving with his family into the countryside, from where it will be difficult for him to make callouts.

Tavistock fire chief Chris Neale paid tribute to both men.

'I'm always very sorry to see long serving, well-qualified, good firefighters leave, but it's nice to see they are progressing in their lives and I wish them luck for the future,' he said.

Mr Neale said one new fire fighter had already embarked on the training, but anybody — male or female — would be welcome.

Drop into the fire station on Abbey Rise between 7pm and 9pm Thursday evenings.