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by Lauren Hood

lhood@thekmgroup.co.uk

Kent's fire-fighting heroes have been honoured for their bravery
at a special ceremony in Maidstone.

More than 100 people gathered at Oakwood House for the
event celebrating Kent Fire and Rescue Service's most courageous
staff.

Among those recognised were members of the international rescue
team who assisted in the
relief effort in quake-hit Haiti.

A team of six men flew to the Caribbean island in January
to help survivors in the wake of the earthquake which killed and
injured thousands.

Team leader John Mazzey revealed some of their duties
during the deployment.

He said: "Our initial task was to concentrate our search and
rescue efforts in the capital, Port-au-Prince where the UK
International Search and Rescue team rescued several people
trapped."

Other people honoured were the firefighters who were called to
the Channel Tunnel after more than 2,000 people became trapped when
five trains broke down in December 2009.

One of those, Russell Jordan, said: "It was very cold outside
which was one problem but very warm in the tunnel and that really
gave us even more of a problem.

"People were coming from very hot, sticky environment
dehydration, out to a very cold evening, it was a bitter cold
evening.

"So that caused quite a lot of problems with the members of the
public, families, young children. You can imagine it was difficult
to deal with."

But it was not just staff who were celebrated, one man from
Maidstone received an award for his bravery.

Leo Vloothuis, from Harvesters Way, in Boxley, was mowing his
lawn when he spotted smoke coming from his neighbour's home.

When he went
to investigate, his neighbour revealed her sons, aged seven
and 11, were both in their bedrooms inside the burning house.

In what he describes as natural instinct, Leo risked his own
life to enter the house to save one of the young boys.

He then returned again to rescue the second child.

Leo said he was humbled to receive the Certificate of
Commendation

"It's such an honour to be formally recognised by the emergency
services for something that I naturally wanted to do," he said.

"I was at the right place at the right time."