‘We will never forget’: Emotional crowd greets B.C. search team returning from Turkey | 24CA News

Packing flowers and waving Turkish and Canadian flags, an emotional crowd greeted members of a B.C. search-and-rescue staff as they arrived on the Vancouver International Airport, Tuesday night.

The 10-member Burnaby Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) crew touched down after every week in Turkey, serving to search efforts within the wake of a pair of devastating earthquakes within the nation and neighbouring Syria which have killed greater than 35,500 folks.

Burnaby USAR, the one Canadian search-and-rescue staff to move to the catastrophe zone, deployed primarily across the Adiyaman.

“For the past week, all of us are crying. We can’t sleep, we can’t eat, every breath we take it’s pain in our hearts, because we feel that people there at home can’t eat, can’t breathe, can’t sleep,” Tara Gulersen instructed Global News.

“The moment I heard the news Burnaby was going back home to help our people, it was the only bright moment we had, so it was so, so important for us that our people here were there for our people at home. It was so emotional.”

Gulersen mentioned she was so moved by the staff’s efforts she wrote them a thanks letter.

5:44Burnaby Urban Search and Rescue staff helps with earthquake efforts in Turkey

She mentioned regardless of having by no means met any of the members, she felt like they have been now a part of her household.

“You fought for us. We will never forget these days, especially how you helped,” she learn from the letter.

“I don’t know how to express my feelings or to express our gratitude, but please know you have touched on so many lives and you are known and prayed for by so many of us.”

“We lost lots of people there, it’s so heartbreaking. I wish I could be there too to help,”  Fatma Altunatas instructed Global News, clutching a bouquet of flowers for the staff.

Altunatas and Gulersen are each members of a bunch of Turkish-Canadians gathering donations for victims within the catastrophe zone. So far, they’ve managed to fill greater than 7,000 packing containers, and stay in want of tents, blankets, diapers, child system and flashlights.

“Everybody is trying their best. From 9 a.m. until 9:30, 10 p.m., everybody is at the warehouse,” she mentioned.

Burnaby USAR, which is generally made up of firefighters from Burnaby, beforehand deployed to Nepal after its 2015 earthquake and the Bahamas following Hurricane Dorian in 2019.

On Monday, staff director Scott Murchison instructed Global News the crew had been serving to on the bottom in any method attainable, from first assist to capability constructing for first responders to humanitarian assist.

They additionally labored lengthy hours utilizing search cameras and acoustic search gadgets in an effort to seek out folks trapped beneath the rubble.

Last Thursday, they efficiently pulled a lady out from a collapsed six-storey concrete condo constructing.

The staff is sort of fully self-funded, and a GoFundMe marketing campaign has been launched to assist them cowl some prices of the journey and to resupply for future work and coaching.

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