The 27 volunteers of the Hellenic Rescue Team rushed to help just two days after the deadly earthquakes in Turkey and Syria, which left behind thousands of dead and rubble
They left their families behind and set out on one of the most difficult missions they had to undertake. They knew that every minute counted and they didn’t hesitate a moment.
The 27 volunteers of the Hellenic Rescue Team, from Samos, Sparta, Athens, Crete, Thessaloniki, had gathered on the evening of Wednesday, February 8 at the EOD offices in the area of ​​Voulgari. Among them the 36-year-old Danae – Fotini Mavroudi, physical therapist and yoga teacher from Thessaloniki, who had just said goodbye to her husband and family and was getting ready for the trip. He had seen images of Turkey on television, but he knew that nothing could compare to the experience of being in the field and experiencing human suffering firsthand. “The decision was very difficult for me. At first I was thinking not to go. My husband also pressured me to make the final decision”, says Danae in thestival.gr. The support of her husband and the need to stand by her colleagues were what led her to take the big decision. “My husband said ‘there’s no way you’re going to miss this, you’re too important to go there and coordinate the first aid part. You’re going.’ I left with great difficulty because I would leave my own people,” adds the rescuer.
“A flight attendant in Istanbul was crying and thanking us”
The mission of the Hellenic Rescue Team, together with the rescue dog, Speedy, left Thessaloniki for Turkey on the evening of Wednesday 8 February and arrived at Istanbul airport the very next morning. “At the airport they enslaved us with their service because we had 1.5 tons of equipment, group and individual. They helped us unload and load them and went straight to the check-in and from there to the flight that they had arranged to serve us and another lifeguard”, explains Danae.
When the Greek mission was leaving Istanbul for Adana, a flight attendant was crying and we thank them. “It was the first shock of how these people experience it who have to continue their lives in a country that has thousands of dead,” says the 36-year-old head of EOD first aid.
“Cities and villages flattened”
From Constantinople they arrived in Adana. Their original destination was Antioch but eventually they were sent to Antiyaman. It took them 10 hours to cross a route of 260 kilometers due to mobilization by the state apparatus and members of other rescuers. Along the way they saw towns and villages leveled. Demolished houses and apartment buildings ruins. “When we arrived the images were dramatic. A ghost town. People around the fires were trying to warm themselves in temperatures of -15 degrees Celsius. We went to the prefecture of the city where the Civil Protection of Turkey, AFAD, gave us the instructions on where to set up our camp to start operating. A group of five of us along with the rescue dog entered the field and the rest of us went to the place shown to us to make our camp. They gave us a space inside the Turkish Oils which was a protected space, the people were helpful, there were toilets with running water, there was a kitchen near us. The conditions were ideal for such a mission in a place where you don’t know what you will face”, describes the rescuer.
Source: Skai
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