Serbian heroes in Turkey locate person alive in debris: One "tool" sets them apart, they work around the clock

The Serbian rescue team from the Internal Ministry's Emergency Situations, which is in Turkey, has located a woman in the rubble who was alive, using special equipment they have that distinguishes them from most other crews.

They located the person at a depth of about 15 meters using electronic equipment, after which local teams took care of her.

"When a building of 7 or 8 floors is reduced to only 3 after an earthquake, then you can imagine the level of destruction here. And there are many of them. There are also large residential and commercial buildings, we are currently moving on to one such, and the assumption is that at least one hundred people were in it, and only a minimal number have been pulled out. A convoy is just heading there..."

These words alone, uttered, by Davor Vidovic, speak about the situation in Turkey, which was hit by a devastating earthquake on Monday, and where our rescue team from the Emergency Situations Sector, led by Vidovic, was immediately dispatched to.

Our rescuers are located in the town of Hatay, near Syria.

They went to sleep this morning around 1 am, maybe later, and already around 8 when we spoke to him, they were in a convoy and started to search and rescue from the rubble. They sleep in tents, keep warm with heaters, but the fuel for the generators is already running out.

"We are giving it all we've got. The guys are healthy, it's important that no one has been injured so far," says Vidovic, when asked how they are doing:

"We are tired, quite busy, as you can imagine. It's pretty cold here. We manage at night, we use heaters, our problem is the fuel used for generators for heaters and other things. We are in tents located next to a city stadium. As far as food is concerned, the Emergency Situations Sector has provided us with all the logistics, so we have both food and water. However, field conditions are completely different, there are no showers, the water that is used is only technical water, which we somehow manage to procure. There is no electricity practically anywhere, and the water supply has also been cut off."

They felt this morning's earthquake

Turkey was hit this morning by a new strong earthquake, measuring 5 degrees on the Richter scale. Vidovic says that a couple of guys woke up from it, but that they search for people every day and survive the earthquakes.

"Last night we returned from the field and managed to lie down for about 1 hour. A couple of guys woke up to it all. The rest of us slept through, exhausted. It's not just a nightmare here, but a bit of an unreal situation. A lot of fatigue, a lot of stress, but we are fighting, the guys are strong, we are resistant to all that. We work even when the ground is shaking, and that happens often. We are giving it all we've got," Vidovic told Telegraf.rs.

He adds that the unit's goal is to find as many people alive as possible, but he is aware that there is little chance of finding more survivors. He explains that there is also a lot of pressure from local citizens, they want at least to find the bodies of their loved ones, to bury them.

"Most of the work is done at the locations where they died, and then, unfortunately, we retrieve the bodies. Our goal is to find a living person, but when you come across a dead body, you can't ignore it. There is a lot of pressure from citizens, they are approaching  us, everyone is looking for at least the body so that they can bury them. And when they are told that (their loved one) may have passed away, it is expected, as if it has become normal to them. So we struggle with that too but we always go in with the hope that we might find somebody alive. So far, we have not pulled out a single person alive because, trust me, when a building that has 7 or 8 floors is reduced to only 3 after the earthquake, then you can imagine the level of destruction here," says Vidovic.

Zigi the dog is a star

Our heroes who went to Turkey on the same day that the earthquake hit, have electronic equipment that helps in the search that others do not have, which is why they also help other teams.

That's in addition to a dog called Zigi, who is a star in Turkey.

"Zigi is our star, as you know. He has been in training for a long time. Sirens are wailing here non-stop, it was his first time flying on an airplane, but despite all that, he is doing his job as he should. Besides Zigi, we also offer help to foreign teams, because we have certain electronic equipment that helps us listen and search, which most teams here do not have. We are also coordinating with the Chinese and the Italians, but most often we meet with domestic teams that are not sufficiently equipped or have distributed their equipment," says Vidovic, and ends the conversation by saying that the team sent to Turkey will not let Serbia down in any way.

(Telegraf.rs)