The German aid organisations I.S.A.R. Germany and BRH Bundesverband Rettungshunde are ending their rescue mission in the Turkish earthquake region. The joint team will return to Germany from Kirikhan on Monday. "Behind our team lies the most extensive foreign mission in the history of the organisations to date," says BRH President Jürgen Schart. "The team has done a great job. Every single one of them has worked to the brink of exhaustion in the last few days to save people. This voluntary commitment simply cannot be honoured enough," said I.S.A.R. Managing Director Michael Lesmeister.
The team was deployed in Kirikhan in the province of Hatay with 42 emergency personnel and seven dogs. Since last Monday, four people have been rescued alive from the rubble in the city. The rescue of 40-year-old Zeynep from a collapsed building attracted particular attention. The woman was freed from the rubble more than 100 hours after the earthquake. The rescue work took around 50 hours due to the difficult situation of the buried victims. Unfortunately, Zeynep died in hospital the following night. This caused great consternation among the Turkish and German public as well as the rescue team.
"This example shows the tragedy of this disaster," explained Head of Operations Dr Steven Bayer. "Thousands of people have lost their lives, countless people have lost their loved ones and small glimmers of hope are often destroyed in the end. But we are glad that we were able to help the people in Turkey through this difficult time."
Both organisations announced that they would continue their commitment to the people in the earthquake region. "We will now examine which projects we can help with very quickly and sustainably. We will not forget the people in the disaster area," said Lesmeister and Schart.
They also praised the cooperation with the "Rapid Deployment Unit for Rescue Abroad" of the German Federal Agency for Technical Relief (THW). This has already proved its worth in various operations, including now in Kirikhan.