A GHANAIAN firefighter has been learning how to tackle floods from his Oxfordshire counterparts.

Chief drill instructor Ebenezer Agrong, known as Tiger, spent two days with the county’s fire crews to learn from their experiences in the 2007 floods.

Mr Agrong’s visit was the latest exchange in a seven-year link between the UK Rescue Organisation and the Ghana National Fire Service.

The senior firefighter was in the country for a tribal celebration and contacted Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue Service to ask if they could provide training to help deal with events like recent flooding in Ghana’s capital city, Accra.

Mr Agrong said: “Procedures that have been adopted here in Oxfordshire would certainly help save more lives, and my chief fire officer will be pleased when he sees what I have brought back.”

Two-week training programmes are held in the UK for Ghanaian firefighters annually, and eight Ghanaians have qualified as international standard road training instructors. Dozens more have been trained to deal with serious road crashes.

Most years the firefighters visit Oxfordshire to get tips on dealing with various emergencies.

Kidlington station manager Rob MacDougall, who visited Ghana in 2003 to provide road accident training, said the link had been among the most successful in the UK Rescue Organisation’s international development programme.

He said: “It is a developing country and they struggle to maintain an effective fire service with very limited resources. They face a lot of adversity but they still do their best to deliver the best service they can to the people they serve.”

Mr Agrong joined firefighters as they gave community safety tips to school pupils, and visited a fire and rescue training centre in Didcot. He also took away training materials.

Oxfordshire firefighters now plan to ship a number of life-jackets formerly used in the county to Ghana, following an upgrade of their own equipment.

Judith Heathcoat, Oxfordshire County Council cabinet member for safer and stronger communities, said: “Our fire crews were delighted to receive Mr Agrong and spend time discussing issues that affect firefighters regardless of where they work.

“We are proud of our links with their fire service.”