Burnaby search and rescue team arrives home after assisting Turkish relief efforts

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A volunteer search and rescue team that self-propelled to the Turkey earthquake zone has returned to Vancouver to a hero’s welcome after a harrowing few days as part of international efforts to save lives.

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The Burnaby Urban Search and Rescue team of 10 people, made up mostly of first responders from the city’s fire department, flew to Turkey with the blessing of the country’s government.

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Arriving in Vancouver on a flight from Istanbul, the team members touched down Tuesday afternoon following a week-long deployment to the Turkish city of Adiyaman.

A large group from Vancouver’s Turkish community waved Canadian and Turkish flags, erupting in applause and chants of “welcome home USAR” as the team left the arrivals gate.

Norm MacLeod, deputy chief of the White Rock Fire Department who led the team in Turkey, said he is grateful to be home after being blindsided by the scale of the devastation.

MacLeod said his team had honed their skills in Nepal in 2015, a “disaster in itself”, and said the destruction in Turkey was “much greater” in scale.

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Christina Mohammed and her three children were waiting for her husband Sean, a Burnaby firefighter and team member, to return after a week’s absence to help with relief efforts.

Mohammed said she wasn’t worried because “they’re part of such a highly-skilled team and a lot of them have been deployed together before, so you just trust that they’re safe, they’re looking out for each other and we’re there to do a good job.” ”.

“It was hard not to know where they were, but it was nice to see their face on TV when they were rescuing the lady,” he said.

The team said a woman was pulled from the rubble and she suffered minor kidney damage but is “resting comfortably” after her rescue.

The Canadian government pledged $10 million in relief shortly after the earthquakes, and drives to collect food, clothing, and monetary donations soon sprang up in several Canadian cities.

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The team was deployed a day after the February 7 earthquakes rocked Turkey and Syria, killing more than 35,000 people and toppling thousands of buildings.

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