A Polish rescue team set off for Turkey on Monday to participate in the search for people in the rubble of houses collapsed by the earthquake. The Polish rescuers will be completely self-sufficient, taking the necessary equipment, food and water.

The HUSAR Poland group, the Heavy Search and Rescue Group of the National Fire Service, which includes 76 firefighters of the National Fire Service and 8 trained dogs, flew to Turkey, which was hit by an earthquake of magnitude 7.8 early on Monday morning. Together with the firefighters, five members of the Humanitarian and Medical Aid Team flew on the mission.

“The Polish rescue team will fly to Turkey with all its facilities, heavy equipment, its own food, its own tents and field beds. I hope that it will be able to make a major contribution to rescuing the people still trapped there from under the rubble”, said Deputy Head of the Ministry of Interior and Administration Maciej Wąsik before the firefighters’ departure.

Brigadier General Andrzej Bartkowiak, Commander-in-Chief of the State Fire Service, announced that Polish rescuers would be working in Turkey non-stop, for 24 hours, in two places at once, for up to seven days – as this is the estimated capacity of people to survive in the rubble in the weather conditions prevailing in Turkey.

“We will go with the best people we have. We are one of the best search and rescue teams in the world. We can be proud of these people; they will represent us brilliantly and with dignity. They will give everything of themselves to save as many people as possible”, Bartkowiak pointed out. 

More than 2,500 people were killed in the earthquake that hit central Turkey and north-western Syria early on Monday morning. The number of injured exceeded 13,000. At least 45 countries have pledged assistance in rescue and search efforts.

Arkadiusz Słomczyński