THE Taliban may threaten the lives of Oxfordshire’s finest beyond the walls of Camp Bastion, but sometimes the dangers can lie even closer.

Specially trained firefighters from RAF Benson and RAF Brize Norton have been commended for their bravery after tackling one of the biggest blazes they’d ever seen – in 30C heat in Afghanistan.

The blaze, which stretched a quarter of a mile across Camp Leatherneck, the American military base next to Camp Bastion in war-torn Helmand Province, raged for more than 16 hours, destroying millions of pounds of military equipment and supplies.

Winds of up to 60mph and a sandstorm fanned the flames towards thousands of gallons of diesel stored nearby.

Among the 26 Oxfordshire firefighters scrambled to help the Americans battle the inferno on May 16 was crew commander Sergeant Rob Moylan, who lives at RAF Brize Norton and is two months into his four-month tour.

The Orkney-born 30-year-old, also a member of Witney Rugby Club, said: “It was probably the most intense firefighting experience I have ever had.

“The temperature had got so hot that the equipment was giving off flammable gas.

“The closest thing I can associate it with was like a wildfire.

“The young lads and lasses were outstanding. You can do a full career in the fire service and not come across a fire like that.

“They were coming very, very low on water and having to use extreme amounts of common sense because of the size of it.

“We were having to ask a lot of the guys to step up to the plate when some of them only had two years’ experience. Every single one of them stepped up to the plate.”

The blaze started at dusk in a storage compound which held gas cylinders. No-one was injured, even though at times flames reached heights of 50ft.

Senior Aircraftman Jamie Atkin, 20, who lives at the Brize Norton base, said: “It was a strange experience, I didn’t envisage myself have to deal with a fire of that size for quite a long time.

“We got there about 6.30pm and left about 3.30am. We got a couple of hours sleep and we went back about 5.30am. It was very hard work. It was 30C heat and I was dragging hoses. That’s hard enough in normal temperatures. When the dust storm came through you couldn’t really see much around you at all.

“We were stood next to the fire and it didn’t feel like we were ever going to get cool again.”

SAC Kieran Carney, 20, a firefighter normally on standby at RAF Benson, said: “We got a chance to prove ourselves and how professional we can be. I felt proud that we got to do the job.”

Commending all the firefighters, Major General Richard Mills, Commander of the US 1st Marine Division, said: “I think that the highest thing we can say is that in a situation where we could have had catastrophic loss of life, because of the way you fought that fire, we lost nobody.

“I can buy new things. I can’t buy new people.”