The men of Thierry Velu, the boss of the GSCF, are of all disasters. Volunteer firefighters for the most part, they are once again committed, on a voluntary basis, to save lives as much as possible in a theater of disaster. After having accompanied them to Ukraine, in a humanitarian aid convoy, 20 minutes follows these men further in their commitment to the victims of the earthquake in Turkey. A team of these northern humanitarian firefighters flew from Le Touquet on Monday and already has a rescue to its credit.
They chartered a special plane to bring to the scene of the earthquake ten men and equipment, including detection under the rubble. As soon as they arrived in Islahiye, in southern Turkey, not far from the Syrian border, they embarked on the difficult and titanic task of finding survivors under the mounds of rubble. Unsurprisingly, the provisional human toll exceeding 11,700 dead, the men of Thierry Velu mostly discovered corpses in the rubble of collapsed buildings.
Four hours to extricate a survivor
Until Tuesday in the day, when they picked up signs of life in a tangle of concrete and iron. “It took us four hours to get a man in his fifties out of there”, explains to 20 minutes the head of mission, adding nevertheless that the survivor’s wife was found dead. A small victory in an ocean of dramas that the northerners will try to renew.
“The mission here will last 7 or 8 days. We will continue the research, ”says the president of the GSCF. At the same time, the association intends collect donationswith a view to delivering aid on the spot but also to set up new missions.