Heroic West Midlands firefighters detail how they rescued families from devastating Turkey earthquake
People were rescued from rubble and families were reunited in Turkey by fire crews from the West Midlands after a "devastating" earthquake hit the country.
Eight members from West Midlands Fire Service (WMFS) left to help the international rescue effort on February 7 – the day after the major seismic activity.
They are each volunteer members of UK International Search and Rescue (UKISAR) and were met by toppled buildings and other destruction upon arrival.
Almost 42,000 have been killed as a result of the 7.8 magnitude earthquake which struck southern and central Turkey, as well as northern and western Syria.
Eight people were rescued by the team from the region with others freed with their assistance or equipment during their stay in the country, with five returning on Thursday.
The crews adopted a "command and control" function where they would analyse information to aid rescue efforts, information which has proved invaluable to teams on the ground.
Watch Commander Jim McParland, who lives in Kinver and is based at Wednesbury fire station as part of the Technical Rescue Unit, said: "I think it was very shocking when you're there and you're very suddenly completely surrounded by these images and sounds. It's quite shocking but again it's what we've trained for and what we've experienced before – you have a job to do and we knew how to do it.
"It became very normal very quickly. At the time it doesn't seem shocking because that's the world you're in, you're just focused on the search and rescue operations."
Mr McParland said there was "plenty of moments" which stuck with him including the help from residents who were able to act as interpreters, which proved invaluable as the search and rescue effort progressed.
"One of the moments which will stay with me is being involved with the rescue of a family," he said. "We were already searching a property and a small group were called forward, they could hear a family trapped under the ruins.
"A small team of five of us went to assess the situation and found there was a way in and we managed to get that family out. We got the mother, father and a two-year-old out of the rubble and reunited them."
Mr McParland said he missed the special reunion but said it was a "special moment" when he was told about it. He added people were really accommodating and tried to give teams "everything they had, even though they themselves were left with nothing" to aid the rescue efforts.
Watch Commander Joe McGregor, who lives in Cannock and is based at Sutton Coldfield fire station, said the team was focused on mapping, communications and disseminating information which was transferred to teams from the UK on the ground.
"It was nothing like I was expecting because we started on the outskirts and it gradually got more and more extreme in terms of what we could see. Just outside the impact centre it got more and more chaotic," he said.
The fire chief said one poignant moment was the rescue of a man and a woman, who were trapped in a hotel – which took crews around a day to rescue. "There was elation when we extricated them from the building. I think because it took so long, there was anticipation and concern especially as we went through that 24 hour period. But it was euphoric to see them exit the building safely.
"And we're really, really grateful to the people there. They were all very friendly and I've made some friends for life, potentially, and I'm still keeping in touch with interpreters now – and they were really key to some of the rescues."
Watch Commander Shaun Crone, who is based at Bickenhill fire station and lives in Willenhall, said he hadn't seen anything before the team arrived in Turkey – but the "destruction and devastation" was clear when they got on the ground.
He said: "I hadn't seen anything before I arrived in the country. There was a little damage to the airport when we first arrived, and it was just darkness when we were travelling in the coach, so I didn't see how it was until we got onto the ground – then we could see the destruction and devastation.
"I was there when rescues took place, we had a 28-year-old man trapped by his leg who was rescued. For me, something that will stay with me was seeing the families who were outside of their properties just sitting in chairs they managed to get out of the buildings, around a fire
"I was like 'why are they sitting there?' initially, but it was told fold – they had family or friends who were still missing and they genuinely did not have anywhere else to go. I think that is what stays with me and all the devastation and the thought of how they're going to rebuild their lives after this."
Mr Crone was full of praise for interpreters and residents in Turkey, saying the team wouldn't have been able to help like they did without them.
Firefighter Paul Evans, who is based at Wednesbury fire station and lives in Willenhall, said: "The scale of it was immense – it was like seeing Birmingham city centre, 90 per cent of the buildings flatten, some are learning over and others have just totally fell over. Looking at it, and seeing the scale of it, was breathtaking. It made you think for a moment, 'where do I start?'
"Some of the interpreters travelled from all over the place to help us and a lot we picked up on the street. We were struggling with the language barriers and they made themselves available to us."
Mr Evans said the interpreters were key due to the dog unit only being able to find life – and it was difficult to explain this to people who wanted their family members pulled out of the rubble.
He said a poignant moment was when a man asked what an area – marked up as where a deceased family was – was, with the man later revealing it was his family but thinking the firefighter for the information.
And that wasn't all with the crew member part of a team which rescued an elderly lady who was on the first floor of a five-storey building, with members using an old set of railings they found to rescue her.
He added there was a surreal moment where, amongst all the rubble, there was an unusual noise – which he discovered was coming from a Peacock staring at him. The team, who stayed in the Hatay area of Turkey, returned home on Thursday from Stansted Airport in London, but had a coach to take them back home.
Watch Commander Mark Leeson, who works in the WMFS' HQ in the policy team and is from Bedworth, added: "It was a bit surreal, a bit sort of like you were in a movie. You're looking around and it looked like an exercise we normally do, but it got real when we started to get closer and we heard people screaming, crying, shouting – they wanted their family members rescued.
"For us, the dogs were amazing and we were really successful as a team. We recovered eight live casualties and we came across other teams, one of them being from Turkey, who utilised our dogs and they pulled out a further three people."
Mr Leeson said he saw personal items scattered amongst the debris which would stay with him alongside the fact people had been left with "nothing" after the major earthquake.
