VA Search And Rescue Team Returns Home After Turkey Earthquake

FAIRFAX COUNTY, VA —Members of Virginia Task Force 1, a Fairfax County-based search and rescue team, returned home this week after spending days searching for survivors in the rubble of earthquake-devastated buildings in Turkey.

The Fairfax County team was one of two U.S. groups deployed to Turkey through the United States Agency for International Development. Both teams are specially trained to extract people trapped under rubble.

The group returned to Fairfax County on Feb. 20, 11 days after their deployment.

"Thank you once again for representing us very well, like you always do," Fairfax County Fire Chief John Butler told the team upon their return, according to a WTOP report.

On Feb. 6, a catastrophic earthquake rocked southern Turkey and northern Syria. Within days, the death toll climbed into the tens of thousands as search and rescue teams from across the world worked tirelessly to save survivors from the rubble.

Two weeks later, a 6.3 magnitude aftershock struck southern Turkey, resulting in additional casualties and destruction to the already-devastated country.

So far, the earthquake has claimed nearly 47,000 lives and injured more than 114,000, according to USAID.

Sponsored by the Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department, Virginia Task Force 1 is composed of about 200 specially trained career and volunteer fire and rescue personnel, all of whom have expertise in rescuing victims from collapsed structures following a natural or manmade catastrophic event.

Related:

• VA Task Force 1 Members Heading To Turkey, Syria After Quake
• VA Search And Rescue Team In Turkey: 'We Still Have A Lot Of Hope'

Virginia Task Force 1 partners with the Federal Emergency Management Agency for domestic events and the U.S. Agency for International Development's Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance for international missions.

USAID Administrator Samantha Power thanked members for their "remarkable" work during the Virginia team's welcome-home ceremony.

"(You) put — as always — the safety and the welfare of the people who are out there in impossibly difficult conditions, in freezing temperatures, above your own human need for rest, and you served," Power said. You served this country, our country so well."

Turkish ambassador to the United States Hasan Murat Mercan also expressed gratitude to the team, WTOP reported.

"We are grateful for all that you have done in the aftermath of the quakes in Turkey. We are thankful — for you have been among the first (who) came to rescue the victims under the rubble within hours of the first quake," Mercan said.

The mission in Turkey was the first for team member Andrew Johnson, he told WTOP.

"Seeing what earthquakes can do through pictures and media, and then being on the ground and actually seeing it firsthand," Johnson said. "It was very, very, very eye-opening. It was a lot to take in."