Tauranga fire fighters Bill Rackham and Campbell Cairns are happy to be home in Tauranga after working in the devastating aftermath of the Christchurch and Japan natural disasters.
In a 24-hour period, Bill and Campbell went from working in Christchurch to help Japan.

Senior fire fighter Campbell Cairns and station officer Bill Rackham are happy to be home from helping in disaster zones in Christchurch and Japan.

They are members of Urban Search and Rescue Task Force 3 – expert rescuers responsible for finding survivors in the remnants of natural disasters.
They live in Tauranga, but work as fire fighters in Kawerau.
They returned home for one night from a two-week rotation in Christchurch, before departing for Japan. They spent eight days carrying out search and rescue work in Minami Sanriku, the coastal village, virtually wiped out by the March 11 tsunami.
'It's hard to compare Christchurch to what we saw in Japan,” says Bill.
'When we got to Christchurch it was quite surreal that a disaster of that magnitude could happen here.”
The devastation they witnessed in Japan was overwhelming.
'When we were driving into Minami Sanriku we could see the damage five kilometres away.
'There was just a whole town spread right across in an amazing mass of wreck and ruin,” says Bill.
The New Zealand rescuers did not find any survivors, but recovered the body of an eight-year-old girl. 'It became obvious that if anyone was trapped, they would most likely not be alive.”
Minami Sanriku was a similar size to Whangamata. Bill says the devastation should be a wake-up call for Western Bay residents.
'We should take heed of what's happened in Japan and prepare wherever we can.
'It's very hard to prepare for a tsunami, but we have to be aware.”
The kiwi team set their tents up in the town of Tome, 30 kilometres from Minami Sanriku. They had their own food, tents, equipment and water filtration gear.
'It was extremely cold. It snowed on our last night. The temperature dropped to about minus 17 degrees celsius.” They returned to New Zealand when the situation changed from rescue mode to the recovery of bodies.