Northern Ireland based charity K9 Search and Rescue made preparation this week to fly to Turkey, arriving on Friday, 10th February, in the country before joining the rescue efforts that have been ongoing since the earthquake struck on Monday.
The 7.8 magnitude quake and subsequent aftershocks caused scenes of devastation and destruction. Latest figures today state more than 28,000 people have been confirmed dead across Turkey and Syria.
The Northern Ireland charity was in communication with Turkish government officials since the disaster occurred but only received permission from Ankara early on Wednesday morning. Now the team have deployed to the disaster zone in search of survivors.
Charity Founder Ryan Gray, who also works as a coastguard based in the Belfast Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre, says they have been preparing for the deployment since they heard the news of the earthquake.
“This is what we train for," Ryan said speaking to Love Ballymena during the week. "The dogs we are sending are USAR dogs (Urban Search and Rescue) and specialise in detecting people in collapsed building structures.
"We are privileged to be asked to help in the rescue of survivors and hope we can reunite families with their loved ones. We will certainly do our very best while there.”
Search dogs Max and Delta, both black Labrador’s have been involved in recent high profile searches in Creeslough and although this most recent call is on a much larger scale, Ryan knows that their highly trained dogs are perfectly suited to help.
“We will fly to Turkey on Friday with the dogs via Dublin airport but really have no idea of the scale of devastation we will face upon arrival. We will get straight to work, knowing this search and rescue mission is time sensitive and every minute that passes can be the difference between life and death.
“Being a self funded charity we would encourage local people to support our efforts which will allow us to stay as long as it takes to complete this search and rescue. We would be grateful of any support in the coming days and weeks.”
You can support the charities efforts and help fund their ongoing rescue missions, both at home and abroad, by making a donation - CLICK HERE TO DONATE via PayPal.