Firefighters in the north east of England now have FloodSax to help them tackle severe flooding.

A parish council has acted to make sure the crews are equipped with the pioneering sandless sandbags.

The Northern Echo reports that Middleton-in-Teesdale and Newbiggin Parish Council and Eggleston Parish Council have joined to fund 60 FloodSax and handed them over to the Fire and Rescue Service.

Middleton-in-Teesdale and Newbiggin Parish Council clerk Judith Mashiter said: “The parish councils are aware that flooding of anyone’s home is an awful experience and hope that by providing these FloodSax that situation could be alleviated.”

FloodSax are transformed from being as light as a pillowcase to become better than traditional sandbags in around three minutes.

To do that simply add water and watch them miraculously expand.

The semi-porous inner liner within FloodSax contains a special gelling polymer which absorbs the water to become taut.

They can be expanded in water in a bath, sink, bucket, hosepipe or even the floodwater itself. Once the water is in there, it stays there and the bags act just like sandbags to keep floods at bay. They are designed so they mould into doorways to keep floodwater out.

Before they are activated FloodSax are incredibly lightweight, amazingly weighing just 7 ounces yet once expanded they are strong enough to stop a powerful torrent of water in its tracks.

So they are very easy to store, transport and deploy.

For more on this story go to http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/local/southdurham/barnardcastle/15238742.Teesdale_councils_team_up_to_fund_new_flood_defence/