An Urban Search and Rescue Exercise was held in the old bus terminal building, which is still being demolished, with the participation of Trabzon Metropolitan Municipality Fire Department, ANDA team, IHH team, UMKE team and TAKAT team. While 53 personnel participated in the exercise, search and rescue dog Rita, who works within the Fire Department, also took part.
WE CARE
The exercise directed by Fire Department Fire Department Manager Fatih Yardimci took our breath away. Deputy Branch Manager said in his statement: “After the February 6 earthquake, we attach importance to such organizations in terms of coordination of the teams working in the field and getting to know each other, and we are trying to repeat them in different areas. We previously organized an organization with the same teams regarding search and rescue in the forest and nature. We will carry out a study on urban search and rescue, which we see as the second stage of this organization. 53 personnel participate in the study. We will carry out an exercise with 5 non-governmental organizations and fire brigade search and rescue teams, including our search and rescue dog. We will carry out a process for the evacuation of dead or alive persons, the type of first aid or emergency aid to be provided, information sharing among the teams, and the healthy functioning of the rescue and organization. "I hope that we will complete the activity without any accidents and in a beneficial way," he said.
THANK YOU
Trabzon IHH Search and Rescue team leader and Urban Search and Rescue Trainer SamiThird said, “We participated in this exercise, organized with other non-governmental organizations under the leadership of our Trabzon Fire Department, with 16 of our volunteers. In this regard, we focus on all trainings as much as possible with the public institutions and non-governmental organizations we constantly work with. Because we continue our work on a voluntary basis in order to have a team that is always ready for an earthquake that may occur in the future. He said, "We would like to thank our Fire Department Branch Directorate in this regard."
WE PARTICIPATE IN ACTIVITIES
ANDA Search and Rescue Trabzon Provincial Chairman Yunus Ersoy said, “We are working in the region in 2 teams. We are a team of approximately 30 people. Here too, by following the calls of both the fire brigade and AFAD, we participate in surface and underwater search and rescue activities in the whole region, as well as search and rescue activities in nature and in earthquake debris. We would like to thank the Metropolitan Municipality fire brigade and all units. We had the chance to work in such a wreck. It's a bit sad because it reminds us of the earthquake debris on February 6, but a pleasing thing is that the debris is very similar. "I think we will do a good job by doing good work," he said.
DRILLS SHOULD BE INCREASED
Berna Kara, President of Trabzon Disaster Volunteers Search and Rescue Association, said, “As individuals who have operated in Adıyaman, we hope that the exercise here will be productive. We would like to thank Trabzon Metropolitan Municipality Fire Department for providing us with this opportunity. We hope there will be more of these exercises. Everything we don't know can harm the victims we respond to during a disaster. In that sense, we operate as an association with 62 volunteers. Today we are in the field with 7 volunteers. We work more focused on education. We are in favor of not performing any activity in the field for which we have not received training. That's why we are in a period where our education is focused. "Hopefully, we will see you in drills with more participants," he said.
DISASTER IS INEVITABLE
Paramedic Çağlar Öncel from Trabzon UMKE said, “Disaster is inevitable. We are planning exercises and training in terms of preparation. We are here to support the exercise prepared by Trabzon Metropolitan Municipality Fire Department together with stakeholder institutions. It is very important for rescue teams, as well as medical rescue teams, to work in harmony in their work areas together. We are here to share what we know and speak the same language. We have no doubt that we will create a very good exercise. We are here with our 2 teams. "It is inevitable that it will be useful," he said.
IT WAS A DIFFICULT PROCESS
Trabzon Metropolitan Municipality Fire Department Search and Rescue Dog Trainer İsmail Ersoy said, “Our dog is our teammate Rita. Belgium founded. Live human search dog. We cannot do such exercises very often, but when we do it, it is better when we work together with other NGOs and other institutions. We do not have the opportunity to work in crowded areas with our dog. There are not many of these types of debris in our city. When we find a collapsed building, we try to fix it. Our country is an earthquake and disaster area. We need such spaces. We evaluate opportunities when we find such space. We train our dog. My teammate Rita and I recently took an exam. He received his certificate there. I worked for this for 3 years. It was a difficult process. We couldn't find such areas. "We had to practice in such areas so that our dog was ready," he said.