Turkey earthquake: Disaster is worst rescue veteran has seen

A veteran of disaster rescue has revealed the Turkey earthquake is the worst he has ever seen.

Mid and West Wales Fire Service's Steve Davies has previously helped at catastrophes in Japan, Haiti, Nepal, Indonesia.

Currently he is in Antakya, southern Turkey, a city now reduced to rubble.

Since the Disaster Emergency Committee launched an appeal on Thursday, £1.2m has been raised in Wales, and a total £32.9m overall.

Mr Davies, from Swansea, is the UK's international search and rescue team deputy leader.

He said: "To actually witness it first hand and see the scale of the disaster on the affected area is quite incredible.

"It's an enormous, vast area that has been absolutely devastated by the earthquake.

"We've been suffering aftershocks right through the week since we've been here, and these are very minor to the main shocks, so it must have been massive."

The death toll has now passed 20,000.

The 51-year-old's team has been trying to move quickly to cover as many sites as possible.

"If we can't identify a chance of a live rescue, we're having to move on because we're trying to save as many people as we can, so it's been really difficult in that respect," Mr Davies said.

"We've had live casualties out every day."

The window of survival was closing rapidly, he said.

"Me and my team have been out to Japan, Haiti, Nepal, Indonesia. We work with our international colleagues and train for these events, but this one is massive.

"Everyone is saying the same, because of the scale of the devastation, most of the buildings have been impacted and are flattened, where as in other places it may have been individual sites that were impacted."

Mr Davies believed this was the worst disaster he had seen.

"We're witnessing first hand the impact on families and survivors who are still trying to get to their loved ones," he said.

"We're witnessing lots of things that I don't think anybody would want to see in their lifetime.

"But the rewards of trying to save somebody and see the joy on a mother's face when you hand their child back, you can't put a value on that."

They have saved six people this week.

He said: "That's what we are here for. So we'll go back with high spirits."

Meanwhile, Halit Sevim, from Llangollen, Denbighshire, had booked a trip to Diyarbakir, where he was born, before the earthquakes hit.

He is now going on 26 February with two friends to see the damage and take donations.

His cousin's house, he said, has been wrecked.

"I know a lot of relatives have lost friends and neighbours," he said.

His cousin's house was so damaged he could not get in it, and he added: "My cousin lost his house so he can't get in his house anymore because of the damage."

A former colleague, he said, found out on Friday his father had been killed.

Two days earlier he learned his mother was dead.

Llangollen's Dee Side Bistro has appealed for donations which Mr Sevim and owner Huseyin Duyar will take to Turkey.

Dozens of bags of clothes and blankets have been dropped off at the business.

"We're going to take whatever we can and anything else we will take it to Manchester for a lorry to take it," Mr Sevim said.

DEC chief executive Saleh Saeed said: "The stories we are now hearing from the survivors who have managed to escape the ruins of flattened and crumpled buildings without shoes and coats in the depths of winter are desperately sad.

"It is hard to grasp what they and their families are going through.

"But what we do know is that help is already being delivered by 14 of our member charities using funds donated to the DEC. They are providing hot meals, blankets, and medical aid."

UK government development minister Andrew Mitchell said: "It is thanks to the generosity and compassion of the British people that the DEC Turkey-Syria Earthquake Appeal has reached within a matter of hours the extraordinary total of £32.9 million, which includes £5m of match funding from the British taxpayer."