story

Mar 19, 2023 • 4 min read

We met Burak* and his parents sitting by a fire outside a completely destroyed building in Adiyaman, Turkey, that was previously their family home. Once eight floors tall, the building is now just one storey high, having collapsed to a pile of rubble following the earthquake. The family were buried beneath the wreckage, but miraculously managed to escape. Burak, a mariner by profession, has now been living on the street for five days and nights, facing brutally cold temperatures.

“We lost 10 people in my family because of this earthquake, including my mother’s sister and her brother’s family. One of them was a two-month-old little baby. Just after 4am, everything started rolling. I was awake, texting with my friend when it happened. I grabbed my family and we lay on the ground trying to find shelter and covering our heads. The building started to crash down — everything collapsed and we were buried. I started digging and after about an hour I managed to open a hole in the wall and managed to get out. I pulled out my father, then my mother and my sister. They are okay, thankfully. Since that time, I have been working at other collapsed buildings to help other people. On the first day, we found a lot of people alive, but since then there have been a lot of dead people. Many of them were little children. It is so sad. I am staying here to keep working and help others. I have had good fortune and I must do this.”