A Tonbridge war veteran helped a Canadian woman locate her mother’s ashes following the recent devastating wild fires.

Matt O’Rourke was one of a team of 10 volunteers, from disaster relief charity Team Rubicon UK deployed to Fort McMurray (Alberta Canada). The disaster caused the emergency evacuation of 88,000 people and destroyed 2,400 homes and buildings.

Philomena Evans was one of those affected and described the emotional moment Matt came to her aid. She said: “I really only wanted to find one thing that could never be replaced, a small urn with my mother's ashes. As directed by Matt we drew a sketch of the most likely position that the urn would be. He directed his team to that location and within a minute or two the urn was located. Well, I immediately began to cry and as I looked at Matt he was walking my way with his arms outstretched and tears in his eyes. I will never forget him and will hold a special place in my heart for him.”

Matt was medically discharged from the UK military in 2013 with a spinal injury. He has since re-trained as a chimney sweep and is currently studying a BSc in Countryside Management, but joined the mission seeing it as a chance to serve again.

He reflected said: “The resilience of the Fort McMurray community has been overwhelming but has helped me to see that life goes on and to keep your head up no matter. The team for me have been awesome from all the nations here and supported me through the hard and easy times. I’ve found the brotherhood that I lost when I left the Army.”

The group joined partners fromTeam Rubicon USA, Canada and Australia assisting the Regional Emergency Operations Centre and the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo in allowing residents to access their properties after wildfires consumed more than 566,000 hectares, or over 1.4 million acres.

Matt and his fellow volunteers led teams in sifting through potentially hazardous debris and ash in destroyed homes to enable remains to be photographed for insurance, occasionally finding legal documents or high value items and, almost every time, the recovery of sentimentally priceless items.