This Monday, the Lisbon City Council honored the Fire Regiment operatives involved in the search and rescue operations in Turkey following the earthquake that hit the country, and decided to award them the Municipal Medal of Good Service.
“To the people of Lisbon that I represent here today, it is a great honor to say that I want to pay tribute to you for your service, obviously, to pay tribute to you for your professionalism, obviously, but I would also like to pay tribute to you for your humanity. “, – said the mayor of Lisbon, Carlos Moedas (PSD), addressing the words of gratitude to the 15 operatives of the Regiment of Fire Engineers (RSB), who are part of the Portuguese team that was in Turkey.
At a ceremony at the town hall, Carlos Moedas paid tribute to the Lisbon RSB group, which was part of the Joint Task Force representing Portugal in Turkey and spent 10 days, from 8 to 18 February, participating in search and rescue operations in Turkish. the city of Antakya, which suffered on February 6 from two strong earthquakes.
“I will award everyone with the Municipal Medal of Good Merit and I will do it on the day of your unit, May 19,” the mayor said, indicating that the decision was made this morning, at the suggestion of the commander of the RSB. Lisbon, Tiago Lopez.
Lacking a “reserve” of medals to award 15 operatives, the mayor this Monday “symbolically” presented the Municipal Good Service Medal to Vítor Machakaz, head of the Lisbon RSB, who was part of the mission in Turkey.
Carlos Moedas stated that the Municipal Good Services Medal “is a medal of exceptional importance because it [para] those who have managed, in very unique moments, in what is public service, in what is service to others, to honor everyone.”
“The images that have come down to us from your mission cannot leave us indifferent, none of us, to the humanity of your mission and, above all, to those moments that I consider unique and that touched the people of Lisbon and touched our country when this United the force, where our regiment of firefighters was a large part, had the opportunity to save this child,” he stressed.
The mayor expressed “great pride” in the work of the Lisbon RSB, stressing that “this regiment of fire sappers is one of the best in the world” because “it is extremely well trained” and the proof of this “was the way they carried out this action and how they went to this “search and rescue in Turkey” mission, in which the decision to go was immediate: “It was ‘yes, let’s go’ without thinking or hesitating for a minute.”
With the emotions of a person who “on the spot” witnessed the devastation left by the earthquake in Turkey, Vitor Machakaz shared that during the search and rescue operation “there were moments that everyone remembers”, but “this footage is not in the past, this photo remains in mind”.
The head of the RSB in Lisbon stressed that the mission in Turkey is part of the firefighter’s job and “doing duty” to protect lives and property in danger, saying they don’t do it with tribute in mind.
Regarding search and rescue operations in Turkey, including the rescue of a 10-year-old child, Vitor Machakaz said that “it was a very big emotion” because “the whole team was in danger”, with a cue in which everyone had to run .
The visibly moved RSB head explained that the Portuguese team was prepared for what they would find in Turkey: “But the destruction was so great that there is no image that reproduces what we felt and saw.”
“It was dark. Families around the fires, wrapped in blankets. Everyone is fleeing the city, and we are entering the city,” he said, meaning that there were some difficulties in communicating with the population, because the Turkish language is quite difficult. The Portuguese team spoke of Cristiano Ronaldo, the Turks have “completely changed their way of life”.
The February 6 earthquake, centered on Turkish territory, followed by several aftershocks, killed at least 44,000 people and injured more than 100,000 in Turkey and Syria, figures are still preliminary and should continue to rise.
Author: Portuguese
Source: CM Jornal
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