Contributing to the emergency response in Türkiye in the aftermath of the earthquake
Marc Nas, Operations Officer and Deputy Group Leader of the CERN Fire and Rescue Service, describes his mission to support the international effort.
On 6 February 2023, at 4.17 a.m. local time, Türkiye and Syria were hit by an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.8 on the Richter scale. As of 26 February 2023, over 51 100 deaths had been confirmed, with more than 44 300 in Türkiye and more than 6700 in Syria. The devastation generated a wave of solidarity across the world, bringing a range of aid and support to help overwhelmed rescue teams on site.
One of our CERN colleagues joined the effort: Marc Nas, Operations Officer and Deputy Group Leader of the CERN Fire and Rescue Service. Since 2015, Marc has been involved in the European Union’s Civil Protection Mechanism. This mechanism was established by the European Commission in 2001 to strengthen cooperation between countries in order to improve prevention, preparedness and response to disasters.
The mechanism was immediately triggered in the wake of the earthquake, and Marc was selected as Deputy Team Leader for the EU Civil Protection team. We caught up with him just after his return from a three-week mission to coordinate the EU’s emergency response with the Turkish government.
Read the full interview on home.cern.