"It’s been an honor and a privilege to work with this team and to work with Ukrainian first responders, because they're resilient and determined," Schur said, holding back tears. His crew brought enough food rations to last at least 10 days, but so far none of his team members have had to delve into their supply. Throughout the last three weeks of the CIRO tour of Kyiv, Schur says his team has been overwhelmed by the help of Ukrainian people who have provided food, water and housing. The Canadian International Rescue Organization consists of eight volunteer team members, mostly from central Alberta. "There’s a lot of emotions for sure, but as a team we have to hold things together.”ĬIRO is a non-profit organization that relies on donations for help.Īnyone wishing to donate to CIRO can visit CanadaHelps.Org. "It’s tough to see, but we’re here for a reason and you have to focus on that reason, because we want to help," he said. Those scenes are still difficult to experience for search and rescue team members like Jackson Siewert from Okotoks, Alta. Porter says he’s seen everything from minor wounds caused by pieces of glass falling from buildings, to people who are critically injured in explosions. I have experience, and the fact that I get to sit here and enjoy the benefits of where I live compared to these people and their families, I knew I needed to do what I could to get some cosmic level of justice."' "I saw that footage and I thought, ‘that’s not fair.' I have equipment, I have training. The nine-year member of the Canadian Armed Forces is a medic who was watching the Ukrainian conflict on television and felt it was an obligation to offer his services.
Sadly, many people discovered are already deceased, but the hope of finding even a single survivor is why Calgarian Kyle Porter made the trip. There’s not a lot of spots for the person to be underneath, but there is always a chance and that’s what we work for.”Īs of Wednesday, the group has successfully completed searches of three buildings and has found one survivor. “Normally in an earthquake you get layers of destruction, but because it’s all blown in, it all just falls and intertwines with each other. “As long as it’s a conscious person and you can get them to tap or scratch on the surface of the rubble, we’ll be able to hear them,” said Schur.
#Search and rescue team how to
CIRO has been working exclusively with the Kyiv Fire and Rescue Service to train their firefighters how to use the technology. Schur says his team members are using cameras along with seismic sensors to detect movement. “You go through the chaos and the confusion and everything like that, there’s high and lows, it’s hot and it's cold at night and you get this big rollercoaster of a day.”
“It’s just up and down with these emotions,” Schur said. This included a tense moment on Monday, when a bomb went off across the freeway from where his team was conducting a search effort. Team leader Marcel Schur from Red Deer described unsettling moments that occur daily as his group enters the danger zones of Kyiv where strikes have hit less than a kilometre away.
#Search and rescue team series
The Canadian International Rescue Organization (CIRO) consists of eight volunteer team members, mostly from central Alberta, who have travelled to Kyiv to conduct a series of high-tech missions in hopes of finding survivors.Īfter reaching out to the Ukrainian consulate in Edmonton at the end of February to offer their services, the team embarked to Ukraine the following week with food rations and equipment. Members of an Alberta search and rescue group are in Ukraine working to save the lives of those trapped beneath the rubble of buildings collapsed by airstrikes.
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