OVER the past two weeks the area's firefighters have rescued more than 200 people from the advancing floods.

But despite the extra call-outs, brigade spokesman, Alec Mackie, said the floods had not had a detrimental effect on the service.

"We've just been doing what we normally do in emergencies - rescuing people from their homes, cars and caravans," he said.

"We haven't had any incidents where attempted rescues have failed but we have been called out to a number of incidents where people have put themselves in danger such as wind surfers, canoeists and people sailing in flooded areas.

"Our advice is not to do this because you don't know what is underneath the water and you could hit a submerged gate or fence," said Mr Mackie.

He added that a lot of animal rescues had also been carried out.

"Oddly enough we were called out to rescue a horse that had got trapped in a swimming pool in Abberley and we had to pump the swimming pool out to get it out," he said.