A hero’s welcome: Benalmádena Mayor welcomes back firefighter from Turkey earthquake rescue trip

THE Mayor of Benalmádena, Víctor Navas held a special meeting with Óscar Raggio Pérez, a local firefighter who rushed to Turkey in the aftermath of the catastrophic earthquake, to thank him for his service on Monday, February 20.

Raggio Pérez explained, “I’m a member of the NGO ‘Firefighters without Borders’ which deployed a specialized search and rescue team on the ground in and around buildings that had collapsed due to the magnitude of the earthquake in Turkey”.

Raggio Pérez travelled with a team of nine firefighter colleagues as well as a nurse and a specially trained dog. The team worked to rescue survivors from underneath the rubble alongside international emergency response teams in the Turkish city of Maras, which has a population of around 1.2 million. Raggio Pérez described the scene on arriving as a “gruesome panorama”.

The firefighter described their joy at rescuing a 12-year-old boy alongside a Singaporean team, but also their feeling of helplessness at such a calamitous disaster.

The Mayor expressed his thanks and admiration to Raggio Pérez calling him “An example of the best of humanity, working 40 hours back to back to save lives”.