Bulgarian emergency rescue teams and equipment flew to Türkiye to help after the major earthquakes

Emergency teams from “Fire Safety and Population Protection” directorate and Sofia Municipality on February 6 flew to Türkiye with specialized equipment to help with rescue activities after the devastating earthquake in the southeast of the country.

Shortly before 13:00, the teams and equipment took off in two Spartan aircraft from Vrazhdebna airport.

More than 1,700 victims have now been reported after the two powerful earthquakes near the Turkish-Syrian border.

Türkiye has set the highest alert level - four.

There is serious destruction, whole buildings have collapsed. This is the strongest earthquake in the region in 100 years.

Bulgaria is sending today 58 employees and 21 pieces of equipment from the General Directorate for Fire Safety and Population Protection, 15 people and 2 pieces of equipment from the Civil Protection Unit of Sofia Municipality, as well as 5 dogs and 2 specialized machines provided by the Bulgarian Red Cross, Caretaker Minister of Interior Ivan Demerdzhiev announced at a briefing.

"At this stage these are the requests, we have responded to all of them. People and equipment will be sent as quickly as possible. Then we have arranged to give a list of help including tents and other means of shelter to the people whose homes have been destroyed. On a professional and political level, all the help we can give will be provided," Demerdzhiev said.

A rescue team of the General Directorate “Fire Safety and Population Protection” left Plovdiv for Türkiye to help the victims of the earthquake. The team includes 58 employees, rescuers and firefighters, as well as specialized equipment and machinery.

The vehicles with which the Bulgarian firefighters are leaving are universal. They are equipped for different rescue activities. They have hydraulic equipment, a crane, and equipment for lifting collapsed buildings up to 100 tonnes. They have rope systems for extracting people, breathing apparatus, chemical suits and pumps for transferring flammable liquids.

Two teams from the Military Medical Academy (MMA) are also involved in the assistance Bulgaria will provide to Türkiye following the deadly earthquake that shook the country earlier today.

The teams include a doctor-surgeon and an anaesthesiology nurse and are part of the Modular Military Medical Units to provide medical assistance in case of disasters, accidents, catastrophes, etc.

Defence Minister Dimitar Stoyanov said that Bulgaria is ready to provide humanitarian aid to the victims of the earthquake, and Türkiye is expected to say what it needs.

Each of the planes will be loaded with equipment weighing about four and a half tonnes.

The rescue teams and the equipment will land at Adana airport, which is west of the quake's epicentre.

"From 8 am this morning, the Air Force is ready and tasked to carry out the transportation of teams from the Metropolitan Municipality, Emergency Relief and Prevention, with the necessary equipment to carry out rescue activities in the Republic of Turkey in the area of the earthquake," said Col. Philip Angelov of the Air Force at Vrazhdebna airport, where the planes will take off.

The operation is very well planned, in very good coordination with the teams of Sofia Municipality and the MMA, which will be transported to the earthquake zone.

"The situation is not very favourable in terms of weather - low visibility, quite heavy cloud cover with thunderstorms, but the crews are ready to carry out this flight and I am confident that it will be successful," said Col. Angelov.

A total of four crews are ready - two regular and one reserve for the two Spartans. Bulgaria is ready to send a third aircraft after the return of the first two.

Images by Dessislava Kulelieva and Military Medical Academy