Sasha is hailed as 'a community hero' for helping to clear snow after wintry weather
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A CAITHNESS businessman has been hailed as "a community hero" and " a star" for helping to clear roads, pavements and driveways of snow after last week's wintry weather.
Przemek Robak, who is known as Sasha and runs Speedy Skip Hire Ltd in Thurso, spent around 25 hours clearing the snow with a JCB on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. He started off in Sir Archibald Road where his business is based but then assisted people in various parts of the town, including Pennyland, Naver, Springpark and the top end of Janet Street. He also helped at Thurso High school as pupils were doing their prelim exams and cleared some driveways so firefighters could get to their base if called to an emergency. In addition, paths were cleared so carers could get to their clients.
Sasha's voluntary efforts were much appreciated by the local community with many taking to social media to praise his efforts.
Thurso Community Fire Station commented: "Big shout out to Sasha from Speedy Skip Hire for coming to the aid of some of the crew members from Thurso fire station who found themselves at the mercy of the heavy snow fall which could have resulted in them having difficulty responding to pager activations. Without his help response times would definitely have increased. Happy to report though that was not the case due to the help from Sasha and his JCB."
One member of the public described him as "a community hero" while another said he was "a star". Someone else felt he made "a huge difference" and said his efforts were "amazing" and "so much appreciated."
Another said: "Great to see people helping out in their communities – deserves recognition" while others suggested he should be reimbursed for the petrol he used. "He 's done a grand job," stated someone else.
Sasha, who has been in Caithness for the past 17 years and the sole owner of Speedy Skip Hire since 2020, said he was "quite touched by the comments."
"I am not a hero. I just wanted to help people. I am uplifted by what has been said and very happy that people appreciate what I did but I did not expect that. It is the first time I done something like this here but I helped clear snow in Poland before but that was with shovels," he said.
Sasha, who is 38 and the dad of two children, reckons he spent about 25 hours over three days helping to remove the snow. "I started in Sir Archibald Road but then helped clear the snow from roads, driveways, side streets and a few pavements in other areas," he said.
Lorna Gunn, the office manager at Speedy Skip Hire Ltd, said Sasha started to clear the snow last Thursday when the weather was "really bad" and carried on for three days.
She said: "I am really proud of him. It was a goodwill gesture and one which has been appreciated by the community. He helped carers who were blocked in and could not get to their clients and that made a huge difference to elderly people who were feeling isolated. He also helped out at the High School as the pupils were doing their prelims. We were especially happy to help the fire fighters who were snowed in and could have had a call out during the bad weather.
"People were asking him if he needed a cuppa and I supplied him with some tea and food to keep him going. I found him by following the heaps of snow," she added.
