FIREFIGHTERS have set out from East Lancashire on a mercy mission to help refugees in war-torn Algeria.

An advance party of ten volunteers was leaving the county yesterday and will be flying out to refugee camps in Tindouf, southern Algeria.

Another five firefighters set off today to join up with a 120-vehicle convoy making the 2,000-mile journey by road.

The drivers are at the wheel of three reconditioned army trucks loaded with building materials to extend food warehouses at the camps.

They are also taking out £1 million of fake designer clothing seized from counterfeiters by Trading Standards officials.

The relief mission has been organised by aid organisations War on Want and Rainbow Rovers.

The advance party will be chaperoned to and from their hotel by embassy staff during a stopover in Algiers, and will arrive in Tindouf on Sunday to begin work.

The convoy, protected by an Algerian armed guard, will get there a week later.

Retired Accrington fire chief Colin Cunliffe said: "We hope to have finished the foundations when the convoy arrives with the building materials."

Others in the advance party include Andy Barnes and Mark Southworth from Blackburn fire station, Les Warren from Accrington fire station and Accrington builder Steve Whittaker.

The drivers include Ian Potts, Bill O'Connor and Chris Fogarty from Accrington fire station and Colin Byers of Ribchester who works at Preston station.

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