Jim McParland

Fire service rescuers from Kinver and Wolverhampton were arriving in New Zealand today to help the earthquake mission as the death toll rose to 98.

With 238 people missing , there are fears that up to 120 bodies are still entombed under one of the buildings hardest hit by the shock.

Sources said it could be a month before all the names of the dead have been released as the severity of injuries means DNA and fingerprints may have to be used to identify bodies.

Firefighter Jim McParland, aged 38, of Hyde Lane, Kinver, stationed at Northfield, Birmingham has joined the search and rescue team.

Also on the plane out to New Zealand, which took off from Gatwick at 3.45pm yesterday is Peter Woodhead, aged 50, of Coleman Street, Wolverhampton, who is IT user support engineer at West Midlands Fire Service headquarters in Birmingham.

They are among seven West Midlands firefighters who have flown out to help with the rescue.

Their families today spoke of their pride and the nervous wait for an update over the phone.

Mr Woodhead’s mother Anita, aged 71, and son Alex, 18, said they were both proud of him.

“He’s done a lot of exercises in the UK with the search and rescue team since he started volunteering a couple of years ago,” said Alex.

“He was really excited about going to New Zealand. He likes helping people and this was the kind of thing he’s always wanted to do.”

The former Royal Air Force corporal, who was a pupil at Pendeford High School, is a trained radio technician and will be part of the communications team.

Mr McParland’s wife Julie, was today looking after their children Lewis, aged three, and Molly, five, waiting for a phone call to say her husband had arrived safely.

She said: “It all happened really quickly. He knew he might be needed over there, but he got paged yesterday afternoon confirming he’d be going.

“For him it’s part of his job and it’s what he’s always trained for.

“As soon as he found out he just wanted to get out there and help.”

It will be Mr McParland’s first rescue mission abroad, though he helped in the incident room in Britain during the Haiti disaster last year and has taken part in atraining exercises across the globe.

He has been a firefighter for 15 years and as well as working in Birmingham he puts in shifts as a retained firefighter in Kinver.

“It is worrying but the team works so well together that I know they will be ok,” his wife added.