THE scenes we have all seen on our TV screens from Japan are almost unimaginable.

Live news footage of the tsunami totally destroying everything in its path is horrifying in its magnitude.

Although it is still too early to comprehend the full cost, it seems clear that thousands rather than hundreds of people have lost their lives.

The wreckage will take years to repair and there is now the added worry of contamination from damaged nuclear power stations.

It takes a very special kind of person to volunteer to travel halfway across the world into this disaster zone in order to try to find survivors and help local people to gain just a little hope out of utter despair.

We are extremely lucky in Lancashire to have firefighters who have those qualities of bravery, empathy for others in real trouble and the technical skills to make a difference.

Some of our Fire Service staff are already veterans of earlier ravages in places like Haiti.

What’s more, they do this work without any personal gain. They are real heroes.