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Manchester Evening News
Manchester Evening News
National
Damon Wilkinson

Incredible moment heroic Greater Manchester firefighter helps rescue woman trapped below Turkish earthquake rubble

This is the incredible moment a firefighter from Leigh helped rescue a woman who had been trapped in the rubble for almost a week after the Turkey-Syria earthquake.

Steve Pennington was part of a UK rescue team who spent 17 hours tracking the woman's voice through the wreckage in the southern province of Hatay in Turkey.

He can be seen on the left-hand side of the footage, released by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, as the woman is pulled from the ruins of a collapsed building and carried to safety on a stretcher. She was one of two people rescued in the operation on Saturday.

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Phil Irving, 46, from Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, was part of the team who undertook the painstaking extraction. He said: "These people were entombed in rubble and debris and we had to work around the clock to bring them out alive.

"It was Friday afternoon when we first discovered signs of life. We knew 100 per cent that they were alive.

"We were hearing them tapping and shouting so we knew we were close to them, but reaching them was a major challenge. It was a catastrophic collapse and access was difficult.

"They were trapped in there for over five days and it will stay with me, their incredible capacity to keep going, hope and believe."

The devastation in the Turkish province of Hatay (Getty Images)

The death toll following last week's earthquake now stands at 33,000. Turkey has said 80,000 people are in hospital and more than 1 million are in temporary shelters.

Steve, a heavy lift specialist with Leigh's technical rescue unit, is one of four firefighters from Greater Manchester who are assisting with the rescue efforts. When the GMFRS officers first went out Assistant Chief Fire Officer Barry Moore said: "Our thoughts go out to the many thousands across Turkey and Syria who have tragically lost loved ones and livelihoods in these earthquakes, and to the emergency responders working to locate and rescue survivors.

(L-R) Steven Pennington, Dave Hedgecock, Martin Foran and Mike Hirst. The Greater Manchester firefighters who have been sent to Turkey to aid efforts after the earthquake (GMFRS)

"We know that those rescue efforts are taking place in challenging winter conditions, compounding what is already a very difficult operation."

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Deelopment Office tweeted footage of the rescue, writing: "The dramatic rescue of a woman stuck in a collapsed building in Hatay, Turkey. Listen to the relief in her voice after being trapped for nearly a week. The UK government funded @UK_ISAR_TEAM spent 17 hours tunnelling through wreckage, tracing her voice."

On Monday morning Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service tweeted: "Steven Pennington, firefighter at Leigh, can be seen on the left hand side of this video as they carry out this rescue.

"We've 4 officers at the #TurkeySyriaEarthquake with the 77 strong @UK_ISAR_TEAM. They're doing amazing, life-saving work & we're incredibly proud of all of them."

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