FIREFIGHTER Majid Ullah is not only dedicated to looking after citizens in Staffordshire – he is also helping to save lives in Pakistan.

The 36-year-old, who is based at Hanley fire station, has been out to the country to train firefighters and has also organised for essential equipment to be shipped over to the Punjab Emergency Rescue Service.

Now his hard work has earned him a nomination for The Sentinel's Our Heroes awards, in the Beyond The Call Of Duty category.

Majid, who lives in Newcastle, first decided he wanted to do something to help people in Pakistan after seeing the aftermath of the South Asia earthquake in 2005.

He said: "I lost some family members in the earthquake and I went over to the affected areas and saw the devastation.

"They don't have the facilities we have, and I wondered if there was anything I could do.

"I was working for Cheshire fire service at the time and they had some redundant equipment, so I saw the opportunity to send it over to Pakistan.

"When I moved to Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service I wanted to carry it on, but it took some time to formulate the idea."

In December last year Majid teamed up with Mohammed Ramzan, from Stoke-on-Trent College, to spend 12 days in Pakistan delivering training in dealing with road accidents.

They also held fire safety workshops with residents and firefighters, and gave talks at local colleges and universities to promote firefighting as a career.

Majid said: "The rate of road traffic collisions is considerably higher that it is here. The equipment sent out to Pakistan was cutting equipment used for car crashes so we went out to train them in using it.

"The day we got there, there was a big fire in a block of flats. The building collapsed and 13 firefighters lost their lives, some of whom we'd starting training with earlier that day.

"It was so saddening and such a shock, but it just reinforced the importance of the work we were doing out there. I could see there were training needs and we identified something we could put in place in the future."

Majid was nominated for Our Heroes by his partner on the trip Mohammed Ramzan. He said: "Majid deserves to be nominated for the hard work and commitment he has put into the project.

"The trip was a huge success and very rewarding."

Majid added: "The links with Pakistan have been established now so hopefully we can pursue it and give them as much help as possible.

"I'm flattered and humbled to be nominated for Our Heroes, although I feel I'm just doing my job."