The eight firefighters-rescuers from the Strumica fire department returned last night after midnight from the rescue mission in the area affected by the devastating earthquake in Turkey.

They were welcomed last night by the mayor of Strumica, Kostadin Kostadinov, who received them in his office and rewarded them with an average salary for their sacrifice, and gave all the firefighters free parking on the territory of the Municipality until the end of their working life.

According to Verner Stoilov, leader of the urban search and rescue team, they worked side by side with over 70 teams from around the world in the city of Adiyaman.

After arriving and having traveled 2,200 kilometers, we were immediately deployed to the city, which is near the Syrian border and has about 270 thousand inhabitants. Most of the buildings have been demolished, and in the rest, there are no living conditions. There are several thousand dead and injured, displaced, in a word the situation is very difficult, said Stoilov.

Upon arrival, the Turkish rescue forces gave them coordinates to search a collapsed ten-story building, where over a hundred people were trapped.

We worked around the clock. Several rescue teams were working together with the Turkish rescue forces. On the fifth day, we received information that a voice could be heard. We immediately went into action and after five hours we managed to get a woman alive, who was handed over to the Turkish medical services, says the leader of the Strumica fire department team.

He adds that it was a real miracle that five days after the earthquake a person was pulled out alive.

It is a very big success for us as a rescue team. It is a priceless honor and there is no greater reward for a rescue team when they pull a person alive from under the rubble, Stoilov underlined.

He says that they returned with mixed feelings, as the survivors of the earthquake in Turkey have. He says that after the fourth day, more and more dead people began to be pulled out, and the grief of the loved ones and relatives, who are next to the collapsed buildings, is enormous.

However, we felt a lot of respect from the local population. They asked us where we were from and when we said that we were from Macedonia in a loud voice, they greeted us with shouts of Macedonia, Macedonia. They showed great respect for us, says Verner Stoilov.

The mayor of Strumica, Kostadin Kostadinov, said that he is proud of the courage and sacrifice of the Strumica heroes and awarded them recognition.

Huge respect on my behalf first as a man and then as mayor. They showed unprecedented humanity and went on a long and uncertain journey to save a human life. They are the pride of Strumica and confirmation that our city has people who are ready and specialized to respond to such major natural disasters, said the mayor of Strumica.

The team of Strumica firefighters was part of the Government protection and rescue forces, which was among the first to leave for Turkey.