 (By Stacie Banton)
From a fire station in the North East of England to the rescue academies of Punjab, one man has spent his career connecting two worlds of emergency response. The story of Mehrban Sadiq, founder of the International Emergency Team UK.
Two worlds, one mission
In Newcastle, a siren means a trained crew, a fire engine and a standard practised for generations. In the towns and hill roads of Punjab, emergency response is younger, still being built, and racing to keep up with the people it serves.
Mehrban Sadiq stands between those two worlds. A British fire safety of Pakistani heritage, he understood both the knowledge one side had and the need the other faced. Instead of choosing between them, he built a bridge — and invited others to cross it.
A calling heard early
Mehrban knew from a young age that his calling was the blue light services. He answered it at Tyne and Wear Fire and Rescue Service, where he serves as Community Safety department — the work of stopping emergencies before they start.
His strengths lie where safety meets people. He plans events, delivers fire safety presentations, and works closely with diverse communities that official messages often miss. Alongside the fire service, he is a successful businessman in the North East and Chief Executive of Dyslexia North East, extending the same instinct to protect into education and opportunity (IETUK Trustees).
Breaking new ground
From 2014 to 2016, Mehrban served as National Chair of the Asian Fire Service Association (AFSA), the network that champions diversity and inclusion across UK fire and rescue services.
In March 2015 he took that mission overseas. Alongside Dr Rizwan Naseer, Director General of Punjab Emergency Service (Rescue 1122), he inaugurated AFSA’s first international office at Rescue 1122’s Emergency Services Academy. Its purpose was practical: strengthen trainers, update curricula, and tie the two services together (CJAM). It was the first sign of a partnership that would keep growing.
Building the International Emergency Team
Mehrban founded the International Emergency Team UK (IETUK) and serves as its Chair. Its aim is to reduce suffering, save lives and build resilience against disasters and crises. It takes a multi-agency approach to risk and emergency planning, aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (IETUK).
He built it as a virtual organisation, now with more than forty volunteer members. Its projects trace a steady climb:
- 2013 — a memorandum of understanding signed
- 2014–2015 — Punjab Emergency Service rescue projects
- 2016 — the Tower Project
- 2017 — paramedic first-responder motorbikes
In September 2017, Rescue 1122 invited IETUK to help with quality assurance and capacity building. Mehrban led the delegation, meeting Director General Rizwan Naseer and inspecting services in Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Azad Jammu and Kashmir. Their stops included Gujranwala, Jhelum, Muzaffarabad, Murree, Nathia Gali and Rawalpindi (Express Tribune).
The calibre of people he has gathered speaks for itself. IETUK’s trustees include Daryl Oprey, a retired Humberside fire director with more than 30 years’ service; Northumbria University disaster-management academic Richard Kotter; and former West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue district manager Mohammad Ali (IETUK Trustees).
The road he keeps walking
Trailblazers are not spared hardship. When serious illness interrupted his own fitness and routine, Mehrban faced it the way he faces any emergency. He took the support on offer from The Fire Fighters Charity, then took responsibility for what came next. Support, as he puts it, gets you started — “it’s up to you to stay on that path” (The Fire Fighters Charity).
That line sums up his career. He did not wait for an international partnership to exist; he started one. He did not wait for emergency services to reflect the communities they serve; he led the effort to make them. And he did not see Punjab’s needs and Britain’s expertise as separate stories. He made them one.
Every volunteer trained, every first responder on a motorbike, every crew better prepared carries a piece of his work. The bridge he built is still open, and still carrying traffic.
About The Author
