This was the incredible moment a Welsh firefighter helped pull a woman from the Turkey earthquake rubble and reunited her with a child. Phil Irving, 46, from Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, was part of a rescue team which pulled two people alive from the rubble after they'd been trapped in a collapsed multi-storey building for 120 hours.
Phil is one of 77 search and rescue specialists from 14 fire and rescue services across the UK providing life-saving support in the catastrophe-hit country. Speaking after the dramatic rescue on Saturday, February 11 - during which his team managed to pull a woman and a police officer to safety in Hatay, southern Turkey - Phil 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.”
