“We take 42 tonnes of material with us”, explained on Monday February 6 on franceinfo Colonel Arnaud Wilm, spokesperson for Civil Security, which sends 140 rescuers to southern Turkey. Monday several strong earthquakes and their aftershocks hit the south of the country and Syria. More than 2,300 people died. France responded to the international appeal launched by Turkey. Colonel Wilm presents the details of the operation on franceinfo.
>> Follow live the latest information on the earthquake in Turkey and Syria
franceinfo: How many people do you send? What is the chosen format?
Arnaud Wilm: 140 people, so two detachments of 70 people each. These are seasoned detachments with international standards and quick to commit themselves within 24 hours to carry out search and rescue operations in urban environments. We will set up a base camp from which, then, the international teams under the coordination of the United Nations will come and assign us a sector and various sites.
What will their mission consist of?
As soon as we arrive, we will go to the areas to identify easily accessible people and try to help them as quickly as possible. The work will become more delicate once we have started the first phases of combing with our dogs since we are leaving with a dozen rescue dogs. Then will engage a second phase, more critical, of research of the hard-to-reach people. And that’s mainly why we go there. We take 42 tonnes of equipment with us, rescue, search, lifting, drilling and lighting equipment to look for people who could potentially be stuck in niches.
Who are the people sent there, what is their profession?
There are two categories of people who are going to be screened today. They are firefighters on the one hand and rescuers on the other. So, these are soldiers available to Civil Security and who are seasoned in this type of very heavy operations. In each detachment, we will bring teams of first aiders, medical modules. But very light and very mobile. And in a second step, we are studying the possibility of hiring a field hospital. So we study at the French level, but we also study at the European level. Since the Union Civil Protection Mechanism was activated at the request of Turkey, which requested a field hospital to treat the many victims.