After the earthquake in Turkey, China’s Blue Sky Rescue (BSR), as the first international rescue team arriving in Malatya, rushed to the stricken area for rescue and post-disaster recovery missions with life detector, satellite telephone, searching and breaking equipment.

7 BSR members from Liaoning Province participated in the rescue have now all returned to China. Xing Liyan, head of Liaoning Blue Sky Rescue Training Department, Captain of Huludao BSR, as well as the commander in chief of the rescue mission in stricken area in Malatya, Turkey, told the whole story.

According to Xing Liyan, a 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck Kahramanmaraş, Turkey, which was felt in many cities. BSR paid close attention and made immediate and positive response by organizing team members to collect information, report to the UN, submit applications to related state departments and call for more BSR members with urban search and rescue experience across the whole country to sign up for recruitment, so as to be better prepared for international rescue in Turkey.

“More than 40 people, including members of local chambers of commerce in Turkey, overseas Chinese volunteers, and translators, were waiting on scene to provide BSR with support and assistance for rescue mission. I set out from Huludao City, covered more than 7,000 kilometers via 4 cities in 63 hours and eventually arrived at the stricken area with the first batch of BSR members.”

Xing Liyan pointed out that the worst-hit area, Malatya, they had entered was the coldest place with large temperature difference between day and night. Many places had been frozen due to the snow in previous days, which hindered their rescue mission. However, BSR was still the first international rescue team to enter the stricken area despite the bad weather.

On February 9th local time, the first group of BSR, 190 members in total, began arriving in Malatya and all directly started their search and rescue in stricken area without rest and adjustment. Besides, the searching equipment, with the ability to spot heat source, could detect any sign of life at any time. On receiving valuable information from the searching team, Xing Liyan soon made arrangements for the team to follow up and take actions for rescue.

Xing Liyan said, “In 24 hours of our rescue, 19 victims and 2 survivors in total had been found. At every search and rescue point, we kept our consecutive and intensive rescue mission going on all day.” BSR stayed on scene for carrying out rescue mission till the last minute before they left Turkey.