1SpecialReport

Overview of the activities of the International Fire and Rescue
Team for the earthquake disaster in the Republic of TurkeyCounsellor of the Civil Protection and Disaster Management Department

photo by JICA
JDR/Rescue Team Formation Ceremony (Advance Team)1

Earthquake & Initial Response

On Monday, February 6, 2023, at approximately 10:17
a.m. (February 6, at approximately 4:17 a.m. TRT), amajor earthquake of magnitude 7.8 occurred with its
epicenter in Nurdağı, Gaziantep Province, Republic ofTurkey. The earthquake caused numerous deaths andinjuries, and many buildings collapsed.
Immediately after the earthquake, the FDMA gathered
information on the damage, etc., while maintaining close
communication and coordination with the Ministry ofForeign Affairs and the Japan International Cooperation
Agency (hereinafter referred to as “JICA”). On the dayof the earthquake, the Turkish government requested theJapanese government dispatch a search and rescue team,and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, who has jurisdiction
over the International emergency relief teams (hereinafterreferred to as “JDR”), consulted with the Commissionerof the FDMA regarding the dispatch of firefighting
rescue team members. The Commissioner of the FDMA
immediately contacted the mayors of the cities in which
the seven fire departments that were in the first orderof dispatch on the day in question according to thepreviously established dispatch plan were in, and after
receiving responses from all the mayors that they would
accept the request, the decision was made to dispatch
the International Rescue Team (hereinafter referred to as“IRT”). Consequently, an IRT, consisting of one FDMA
member and 16 members from seven fire departments,
was dispatched to Turkey as part of the JDR and RescueTeams.
• Number of Dispatched IRT Members-FDMA : 1 -Tokyo Fire Dept. : 6-Fukuoka City Fire Prevention Bureau : 3-Hiroshima City Fire Service Bureau : 3-Ibaraki South-West Regional Fire Dept. : 1-Tokushima City Fire Dept. : 1-Joetsu Area Fire Dept. : 1 -Miyazaki City Fire Dept. : 12Airport Gathering & Departure

For this dispatch, the JDR/Rescue team was divided
into an advance team (first group) and a main team(second group) in order to enter the disaster area quickly.
The advance team departed from Tokyo International
Airport (hereinafter refered to as “Haneda Airport”) at
10:50 p.m. on Monday, February 6 for Istanbul, and themain team departed from Haneda Airport at 10:40 p.m.
on Tuesday, February 7 for Istanbul.
The advance team consisted of 18 members, of which
5 were IRT members (1 from the FDMA and 4 fromthe Tokyo Fire Department), while the other 12 IRT
members left for Turkey with members of the main team.
3Arrival & Activities On Site

(The times below are in local time. There is a 6 hours
time difference from Japan.)(1)Advance TeamThe advance team members arrived at Istanbul
International Airport on Tuesday, February 7 atapproximately 7:00 a.m. The advance team thenchanged to a domestic flight and arrived at Kayseri,a city in central Turkey, at around 12:00 p.m.Upon
arrival, they immediately visited the Kayseri office of
the Turkish Disaster Emergency Agency (AFAD), andbased on the information they received there, traveled
overland to Kahramanmaraş in southwestern Turkey,
near the epicenter of the earthquake. After arriving at
Kahramanmaraş on the evening of the 7th, they began
search and rescue operations in a collapsed nine-story
apartment building at the request of the local authorities.
Search and rescue operations here continued until themorning of Wednesday, August 8, when two people inneed of rescue were found, but were conﬁrmed dead on
the spot by Turkish Ministry of Health ofﬁcials.

FDMA NEWS APRIL 2023

photo by JICA
Gathering information from nearby residents

photo by JICA
Search and Rescue in Kahramanmaraş

photo by JICA

photo by JICA

Searching with Dogs

Search and Rescue in Kahramanmaraş

The advance team then gathered information todetermine the next location of operations. Upon receiving
information that a rescue team was needed at the site of acollapsed four-story apartment building, they immediately
rushed to the scene, conducted detailed interviews withthe residents, and began search and rescue operations.
(2)Main TeamThe members of the main team arrived at Istanbul
International Airport at approximately 7:30 a.m. on
Wednesday, February 8.
After taking the same travel route as the advance team,they arrived at Kahramanmaraş at around 8:00 p.m. on
the same day. They met up with the advance team andtook over the activity sites that had been handled by theadvance team.

(3)Advance and Main Teams Joining
Once all members were in place, the JDR/Rescue team
moved to a normal formation of two companies and four
platoons, working on a company-by-company basis. In
addition, the advance team completed the selection ofa camp site, which had been conducted in parallel withthe search and rescue operations, and made preparations
to receive materials, equipment, and supplies. At thesuggestion of the JDR/Rescue Team, international
coordination using the INSARAG (Established in 1991
for the purpose of international standardization andcoordination of urban search and rescue operations. The
central office is the UN Office for the Coordination ofHumanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Geneva) methodology (amethod in which international rescue teams coordinate
Number of JDR/Rescue Team (Total: 74)

Commander: 1 Person
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Sub-commanders: 4 People
National Police, FDMA, Coast Guard, JICA

Medical Squad: 5 People
Doctors, Nurses, Etc.

Company Commander: 1 Person
Tokyo Fire Dept.

Structural evaluation: 2 private designers
Operations coordinator: 11 JICA personnel
Correspondence: 2 Police
Company Commander: 1 Person
Metropolitan Police Dept.

Company Commander
Support: 1 Person
Tokyo Fire Dept.

Platoon: 10 People
Mixed Fire, Police,and Coast Guard forces

Platoon: 10 People
Mixed Fire, Police,
and Coast Guard forces

Company CommanderSupport: 1 Person
Metropolitan Police

Platoon: 10 People
Mixed Fire, Police,
and Coast Guard forces

Ministry of Foreign Affairs: 1FDMA: 1Cities and Regional Fire Departments: 16
National Police Agency: 1
Prefectural Police Departments: 22
Coast Guard: 14JICA: 12Medical: 5
Structural Evaluation: 2Search and Rescue Dogs: 4Search and Rescue
Dog Team: 5 People
Metropolitan Police

Platoon: 10 People
Mixed Fire, Police,
and Coast Guard forces

JDR/Rescue Team Organization

FDMA NEWS APRIL 2023

on behalf of the governments of the affected countries todetermine the search and rescue sites to which they willrespond) has also begun within the Kahramanmaraş. TheJDR/Rescue team decided to utilize this international
coordination while independently touring the affectedarea to identify activity sites.
In a series of activity sites, JDR/rescue teams searchedwith radar and other equipment, rescue dogs, andhailing (calling out), etc., then breached the areasthat responded with chainsaws and other destructive
equipment, and rescued people in need from narrow
spaces in cooperation with medical personnel andstructural assessment specialists, while being carefulof secondary collapses and aftershocks. These searchand rescue operations require a high level of skill andknowledge, and each member of the team continued toapply the results of their daily training until Monday,
February 13, and rescued six people. Although theyencountered situations that required collaboration withlocal rescue teams and international rescue teams fromother countries, as well as conditions that did not allow
for sufﬁcient rest even at the campsite due to the extreme
cold, the morale of the team members remained highuntil the end for the sake of the victims in Turkey.

4Returning Home

After completing their mission in Turkey, the JDR/Rescue Team departed from Istanbul International
Airport at 2:50 a.m. on Wednesday, February 15, andarrived at Haneda Airport at 7:20 p.m. on Wednesday,
February 15, JST.
At Haneda Airport, the JDR/Rescue Team Disbanding
Ceremony was held, followed by the IRT Disbanding
Ceremony. At the disbanding ceremony, Counsellor
Murakawa of the FDMA read a message from Minister(MIC) Matsumoto and Mr. Yoshida, Secretary General of
the National Fire Chiefs’ Association, gave a speech.
The FDMA will make use of the valuable lessons
learned this time so that IRT dispatch activities can be
carried out at a higher level.
Locally, reconstruction efforts have gradually begun.
We sincerely pray for the repose of the souls of thevictims and the early recovery and restoration of theaffected areas, and hope that IRT’s activities will provide
some encouragement to the victims in their efforts torecover.

Message from Minister Matsumoto for Internal Affairs and Communications at the Disbanding Ceremony for
the International Rescue Team• We would like to express our sincere appreciation to the 17 members of the International Fire and Rescue Team,
including Chief Endo and Captain Hayasaka, who were dispatched to the earthquake disaster in the Republic ofTurkey.
• Although the search and rescue operations were carried out under extremely harsh conditions such as aftershocks andcold weather, we would like to express our sincere appreciation for their continued and dedicated service immediately
after their arrival in the area. Your service has been widely reported in Japan, and I was very encouraged to see it.
The Republic of Turkey has also expressed its appreciation for your services, which have been of great signiﬁcanceto Japan’s international contribution.
• I am sure that your families and the ﬁre departments from which you were dispatched are very proud of your service,
but I am sure that they were also very concerned. I, too, am relieved that all of you have returned home safe and sound.
• I hope that all of you will make use of this experience in your respective workplaces and continue to fulfill thedifﬁcult and noble mission of saving lives.
• Thank you very much to all the members of the team.

JDR/Rescue Team Disbanding Ceremony

IRT Group Photo

Material created by the Fire and Disaster Management Agency were translated by the International Fire Service Information Center

FDMA NEWS APRIL 2023