Turkish Earthquake:- Contd

Aydin

On arrival at Aydin at 1100hrs the five Brigade teams, each consisting of five or six personnel, were quickly got to work responding to requests from the local residents to search parts of the affected buildings. The resort of Aydin consisted of a stretch of land between the sea and the main road on which had been built apartments of varying sizes and shapes but typically five storeys with between 12 and 24 apartments per floor.

The searching continued throughout the afternoon with the rescue of a woman which took two hours and utilised the skills of the West Sussex Team together with the Dr McNeil and the Dog Team.

Following this rescue a full reconnaissance of the resort was carried out and it became obvious it would be necessary to establish a base at the resort and carry out a systematic search of the apartment buildings. There was a Japanese team working on one building and after discussions with them it was agreed that they would continue the rescue effort on that building.

A suitable site for a base was soon located and the coaches were re-located to a disused basket ball pitch to the rear of one of the blocks. A plan of the resort was drawn up and a strategy for the team was agreed. Of the five teams three would systematically check the 12 buildings in the complex, one team would be on standby to respond to requests from the local population where they believed sounds had been heard inside buildings, and the fifth team would be resting or feeding. This strategy worked well although there were times when all teams were committed due to the nature of the operation and our wish to respond to all requests for assistance.

The teams worked through to 2300hrs when fatigue set in and all teams were withdrawn and slept until 0500hrs.During this first day of search and rescue for the five teams they had responded to some 30 requests for assistance and had fully searched five apartment buildings, approximately 450 individual units.

On the morning of the 20th the systematic search continued and a number of reported noises were investigated. During the morning a Finnish rescue team of Firefighters joined the contingent and became the sixth team under our control, they were used in a lengthy operation which unfortunately was not successful.

A survey was carried out of apartments further along the coast to ascertain if we could be utilised for search and rescue in them, but it was found that they had been searched by other teams and we were not required there.

During the morning the Field Commander, Ian Muir of Kent Fire Brigade traveled to the regional crisis centre and surveyed a number of areas to see if the contingent could be re-deployed to them. A message was passed to the contingent soon after midday that they were to move to a town called Cinarcik once the work at Aydin was completed.

The camp was broken at 1330hrs and the contingent was on the road by 1415hrs having packed all the equipment back on the buses and ensured that once at Cinarcik the teams would be ready for immediate work.

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