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10 February 2023
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Turkey and Syria earthquakes: The importance of timeous deployment of response teams
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The earthquake and subsequent aftershocks that struck southern and central Turkey and northern and western Syria on Monday, 6 February 2023, has seen numerous urban search and rescue (USAR) and disaster response agencies and humanitarian organisations respond within hours, with the death toll climbing per hour.
Fire and Rescue International spoke to Colin Deiner of the Western Cape Province Disaster Management and Fire and Rescue Services about the strategies, tactics and intricacies when responding to such an incident.
Deiner was team leader for several USAR responses including the India earthquake in 2001, Algeria in 2003, Iran in 2003, Pakistan in 2005, Haiti in 2010 and Japan in 2011. He was also the operations leader to the 1999 Turkey earthquake response.
Deiner said, “The concept of large Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) teams originated in the mid to late eighties and early nineties after massive earthquakes in Mexico and Armenia. The need for a self-contained team that integrates all the competencies required for rescuing people from collapsed structures, was largely identified in the United States where the risk of earthquakes on the west coast and cyclones on the east coast are fairly common occurrences. The 911 attacks in New York City and Washington DC led to a massive increase in USAR teams across the world with many countries in Europe establishing teams of 60 or more members. The USA currently has 28 teams in various locations across the country. These large USAR teams are very well funded by their governments and are provided with huge caches of equipment and supplies to support them on foreign operations”
“Despite the size of these teams, they have a remarkable ability to respond very quickly to disasters virtually anywhere on the globe. In the USA two of the 28 teams are designated ‘International Response’ Teams. These teams are located in Fairfax County, Virginia and Los Angeles County, California. These teams are capable of responding within eight hours of activation and are transported by military aircraft to the disaster site. It is quite possible that these teams could be on the ground, at the disaster site, on the same day as what the disaster occurred”, said Deiner.
He added, “While the Russian Team, Emercom, has their own air transport capability that consists of a number of IL-76 heavy lift aircraft, a team like Germany have an agreement with their national carrier, Lufthansa, who dedicate a large aircraft exclusively for the use of the team when they need to respond.”
“The importance of an early response is critical in the event of a mega-earthquake. People trapped in collapsed structures have very little chance of surviving the massive forces generated by collapsed buildings. There have, however, been many instances of people surviving for days in voids created by the manner in which the structure has collapsed. A number of factors will determine how long a person is able to survive in such a void. Injuries suffered, type of collapse, temperatures, and access to water would be the main factors. These chances diminish rapidly however with each passing hour”, he said.
“Unfortunately, Turkey has suffered from having very poor building codes, which was the main cause of the structural collapses that happened during the two earthquakes in that region in 1999 and caused the death of 17 000 people,” he added.
“Although the codes were changed after this, many of the buildings were still constructed under the old codes and we saw this on the many video clips coming out of the affected zone. Unfortunately, this causes a complete collapse with very little, if no void formation and, hence, sadly a very small chance of survival”, Deiner explained.
He continued, “The current severe weather experienced in Eastern Turkey and Northern Syria is severely impacting the movement of rescue teams and other humanitarian aid. Large, well resourced, self-supporting rescue teams such as the USA, Germany, UK and Russian teams would be best placed to deal with the current disaster.”
Marlu Rust of the Western Cape Disaster Management Centre has been deployed to Turkey to work as part of the United Nations coordination team. He will be assisting arriving rescue teams as they enter the country to be placed in areas where they are required and will be coordinating their operational activities on the ground. Rust said, “I am part of the United Nations Disaster Assessment and Coordination (UNDAC) contingent or team here Turkey, in the Gaziantep region.”
We received feedback from the National Disaster Management Centre (NDMC) that South Africa will not be sending its USAR-SA INSARAG classified team.
A number of organisations and volunteers joined the Gift-of-the-Givers response teams to Turkey and Syria. See separate articles.
Fire and Rescue International send our deepest condolences to all those who have lost loved ones, family, friends and colleagues in this horrific disaster. Our thoughts and prayers are with all responders, disaster relief agencies and USAR teams including the K9s and the people fighting for survival.
Quote of the week
“Training today for safety and survival tomorrow” ~ Al Schlick
Fire and Rescue International is your magazine.
Read it, use it and share it!
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Lee Raath-Brownie
Managing director
Cell: 082 371 0190
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Tel: 011 452 3135 or Email: lee@fireandrescue.co
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Fire and Rescue International spoke to Colin Deiner of the Western Cape Province Disaster Management and Fire and Rescue Services about the strategies, tactics and intricacies when responding to such an incident.
Deiner was team leader for several USAR responses including the India earthquake in 2001, Algeria in 2003, Iran in 2003, Pakistan in 2005, Haiti in 2010 and Japan in 2011. He was also the operations leader to the 1999 Turkey earthquake response.
Deiner said, “The concept of large Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) teams originated in the mid to late eighties and early nineties after massive earthquakes in Mexico and Armenia. The need for a self-contained team that integrates all the competencies required for rescuing people from collapsed structures, was largely identified in the United States where the risk of earthquakes on the west coast and cyclones on the east coast are fairly common occurrences. The 911 attacks in New York City and Washington DC led to a massive increase in USAR teams across the world with many countries in Europe establishing teams of 60 or more members. The USA currently has 28 teams in various locations across the country. These large USAR teams are very well funded by their governments and are provided with huge caches of equipment and supplies to support them on foreign operations”
“Despite the size of these teams, they have a remarkable ability to respond very quickly to disasters virtually anywhere on the globe. In the USA two of the 28 teams are designated ‘International Response’ Teams. These teams are located in Fairfax County, Virginia and Los Angeles County, California. These teams are capable of responding within eight hours of activation and are transported by military aircraft to the disaster site. It is quite possible that these teams could be on the ground, at the disaster site, on the same day as what the disaster occurred”, said Deiner.
He added, “While the Russian Team, Emercom, has their own air transport capability that consists of a number of IL-76 heavy lift aircraft, a team like Germany have an agreement with their national carrier, Lufthansa, who dedicate a large aircraft exclusively for the use of the team when they need to respond.”
“The importance of an early response is critical in the event of a mega-earthquake. People trapped in collapsed structures have very little chance of surviving the massive forces generated by collapsed buildings. There have, however, been many instances of people surviving for days in voids created by the manner in which the structure has collapsed. A number of factors will determine how long a person is able to survive in such a void. Injuries suffered, type of collapse, temperatures, and access to water would be the main factors. These chances diminish rapidly however with each passing hour”, he said.
“Unfortunately, Turkey has suffered from having very poor building codes, which was the main cause of the structural collapses that happened during the two earthquakes in that region in 1999 and caused the death of 17 000 people,” he added.
“Although the codes were changed after this, many of the buildings were still constructed under the old codes and we saw this on the many video clips coming out of the affected zone. Unfortunately, this causes a complete collapse with very little, if no void formation and, hence, sadly a very small chance of survival”, Deiner explained.
He continued, “The current severe weather experienced in Eastern Turkey and Northern Syria is severely impacting the movement of rescue teams and other humanitarian aid. Large, well resourced, self-supporting rescue teams such as the USA, Germany, UK and Russian teams would be best placed to deal with the current disaster.”
Marlu Rust of the Western Cape Disaster Management Centre has been deployed to Turkey to work as part of the United Nations coordination team. He will be assisting arriving rescue teams as they enter the country to be placed in areas where they are required and will be coordinating their operational activities on the ground. Rust said, “I am part of the United Nations Disaster Assessment and Coordination (UNDAC) contingent or team here Turkey, in the Gaziantep region.”
We received feedback from the National Disaster Management Centre (NDMC) that South Africa will not be sending its USAR-SA INSARAG classified team.
A number of organisations and volunteers joined the Gift-of-the-Givers response teams to Turkey and Syria. See separate articles.
Fire and Rescue International send our deepest condolences to all those who have lost loved ones, family, friends and colleagues in this horrific disaster. Our thoughts and prayers are with all responders, disaster relief agencies and USAR teams including the K9s and the people fighting for survival.
Quote of the week
“Training today for safety and survival tomorrow” ~ Al Schlick
Fire and Rescue International is your magazine.
Read it, use it and share it!
Download magazine PDFs: https://www.frimedia.org/fri-archives.html
Read the magazines online: https://issuu.com/fireandrescueinternational
Enjoy the read!
Lee Raath-Brownie
Managing director
Cell: 082 371 0190
Contact us
Tel: 011 452 3135 or Email: lee@fireandrescue.co
Websites
www.fireandrescue.co
www.frimedia.org
www.facebook.com/FireandRescueInternational
www.twitter.com/FRI_magazine
http://www.linkedin.com/in/lee-raath-brownie-16668065/
