'It's impossible not to want to help. You do everything you can': West Midlands firefighter helps rescue hundreds of people after Cyclone Freddy

The cyclone crossed the entire southern Indian Ocean before wreaking death and destruction on south-eastern Africa in February and March.

Huge amounts of brown water cascaded through neighbourhoods, sweeping away homes and causing hundreds of deaths in Malawi.

Watch Commander McParland, who is a member of the UK International Search and Rescue team, was deployed to Malawi following a request for UK assistance from the Malawian government which declared a state of disaster in 10 southern districts.

West Midlands Fire Service was among other UK fire and rescue services to have answered the call for international help.

Mr McParland, who lives in Kinver and is based at Wednesbury fire station, was part of a 27-person flood response team, which included four from WMFS.

He was out there for 10 days and only got back on Sunday.

The 50-year-old was stationed at Bangula in the southern region district of Nsanje, which had around 13,000 refugees camped outside the base.

Each day, Mr McParland and his colleagues worked to evacuate and bring supplies to people living in Makhanga, who had become shut off from the rest of the region.

"It was the worst affected region. There was no road access to them and they were very desperate and had been without food and water for five days," he said.

"We had to go on boat journeys through flooded bushland. We were running continuous boat operations getting the sick and injured off the island first and delivering food. We took a team of medics as well.

"We evacuated about 80 per cent of the people but there were some people who wanted to stay behind because they had their livestock.

"Their homes had blown down in the cyclone but they had been making temporary shelters out of plastic sheets.

"We'd get to the point of where we could load the boat and there would be hundreds of people there. They were very appreciative."

The team would also have to do a three-hour run each day to get fuel for the boat.

Mr McParland had only returned from Turkey a few weeks ago, where he had helped with the international rescue effort following the earthquake disaster which killed tens of thousands of people.

Comparing the conditions to Turkey, Mr McParland said: "In Turkey we were working around the clock. We were rescuing people from collapsed buildings. "We were getting about three hours of sleep a night. "In Malawi there was no night-time working as it would have been impossible to navigate.

"But it was very tough. Being in a dry suit in very hot temperatures was just draining.

"It's impossible not to want to help. You do everything you can."

Mr McParland has worked for WMFS for 28 years and has been part of the United Kingdom International Search and Rescue team for the past two decades.

Just hours after returning from Malawi, he set off for Kinver Edge to help raise funds for the survivors of the Turkey/Syria earthquakes, with donations going to the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) appeal.

Firefighters had arranged the fundraiser, aiming to walk the distance from the UK to Turkey by doing laps around Kinver Edge and encouraging the public to join in.

Mr McParland said: "Around 300 people showed up and between them managed to walk 1,350 miles, raising more than £3,000.

"I was chuffed that went ahead.

"I'm really proud at how much was raised. I'm so grateful to everyone – they have been very generous with their time and money. That's really humbling. It just restores your faith in humanity."