A Morecambe firefighter has returned home after he joined the search and rescue effort following the devastating earthquakes in Turkey and Syria.
Jim Davison, a fire crew manager from Morecambe, was deployed to Turkey, joining the UK team who were racing to save hundreds of people trapped beneath the rubble after thousands of buildings collapsed in both countries.
As part of the team, Jim is Operations Commander for UKISAR (United Kingdom International Search and Rescue), and flew out with other Lancashire Fire and Rescue colleagues, along with search dogs Davey and Sid.
UKISAR respond to humanitarian accidents and disasters worldwide and provide a search and rescue facility. The team are on call 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
‘’We deployed a 77 strong team, which is classified with the United Nations as a response to a disaster,’’ Jim told BBC Breakfast.
‘’Our mission was to get over there as quickly as we could, and set up so we could get onto the ground ASAP.
‘’I’ve been in the team for 20 years, but the scale is something that can quite easily overwhelm you.
‘’I’ve got members of the team of whom this was their first big deployment, and when we arrived, the scale of it was large. On our first day, we had to give them that chance to absorb what was going on.
‘’If you just drop someone into that sort of (search) situation too quickly, it can overwhelm them. So it just gave the team that chance to take it all in, to work as effectively as possible, for as long as possible.’’
During their time on the ground, the team battled to save as many lives as possible, including helping to reunite a mother with her baby daughter after she was trapped in rubble, and also saving a 91-year-old lady from a badly damaged building.
‘’There’s always that miracle story where someone survives. There’s always hope. There’s always human nature,’’ said Jim.
‘’We have to try and go for saveable life.’’
After returning from a gruelling ten day mission, Jim said he and the team would now have a period of well deserved rest before returning to duty.
‘’We’ve now got some agreed downtime, but you also need to remember that the time we’ve been over there, our workplaces back home have had to cover us.
‘’It’s a massive team approach.’’
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