"We are now in front of a collapsed high-rise building. Although there are aftershocks from time to time, rescuers are working against time," said Huang Yunbing, a service engineer of ZOOMLION. After arriving in the disaster area, the ZOOMLION rescue team has been fighting for more than 30 hours. As of 8 p.m. Beijing time on February 8, the ZOOMLION rescue team had rescued more than 20 trapped people.
On February 6, a number of strong earthquakes occurred in southeastern Turkey, causing heavy casualties and property losses. ZOOMLION headquarters immediately instructed local subsidiaries to organize rescue personnel and equipment to rush to the severely affected Hatay Province, and arrived at the scene at around 12:30 local time on February 7. It was one of the earliest Chinese rescue forces to arrive at the disaster site.
Huang Yunbing and Yu Ke are experienced service engineers of ZOOMLION Turkish subsidiary, set off overnight from Istanbul with other ZOOMLION rescue team members and made the 16-hour trek through heavy snow and road blockades to reach the disaster area. "As service engineers, our primary responsibility is to ensure the smooth operation of each equipment and provide assistance for the rescue work," Huang Yunbing and Yu Ke said.
According to them, after arriving at the scene, ZOOMLION's five excavators were dispatched to different areas for rescue. Collapsed, broken, and cracked buildings could be seen everywhere. They encountered difficulties in the first rescue. Due to the local power interruption, some professional crushing tools could not be used. In order to ensure the safety of the trapped people, the rescuers used hammers, awls, shovels and other tools to dig out a rescue channel by manpower. It took more than 3 hours to rescue the first trapped person.
"There was a little girl, about 15 years old, who impressed me very much. When I got into the rescue tunnel that had been cleared, I saw her under a mattress and a stone slab, with only her head visible and able to move, and she was crying weakly and painfully. After determining that we could use two jacks to lift the stone, we immediately took a jack from the car and borrowed one from a nearby rescue team. We successfully lifted the stone a little higher, and then pulled her out." Huang Yunbing said that the urgent shortage of generators made it difficult to demolish the broken house.
Fortunately, all the efforts of the rescue team have brought a steady stream of hope to the trapped people. As of 20:00 p.m. on February 8, after more than 30 consecutive hours of fighting, the ZOOMLION rescue team has rescued more than 20 trapped people from the rubble.
At present, the ZOOMLION rescue team is searching and rescuing in the rubble formed after the collapse of a high-rise residential building, which was almost razed to the ground by powerful seismic waves. As the rescue work continues to advance, the follow-up rescue forces also continue to penetrate into the disaster area.
"In addition to the first five excavators, now there are more than 20 ZOOMLION excavators involved in the disaster area, we are still under the unified arrangement of local personnel, equipment and other resources, to ensure the smooth progress of rescue work, try to save more trapped people." ZOOMLION Turkey subsidiary related responsible person said.
