Thousands have come from all over Italy and across Europe to help in the mammoth rescue effort in Amatrice.
Search continues for survivors day after deadly earthquake hits central Italy
Thousands had come to help, from all over Italy and across Europe. According to the national civil protection agency, more than half the 5,400 people who have joined the mammoth rescue effort are volunteers.
Cristobal Rodríguez, a firefighter with a Spanish emergency response organisation, had spent 12 hours travelling to the stricken zone from Málaga with his rescue dog, Lula. He was optimistic: “We’re hopeful we’ll find more survivors.”
His colleague Juan Manuel Lacueva, a veteran of international disasters including Haiti’s devastating 2010 quake, stood nearby with his dog, Blackie. “Firefighters from Málaga are always the first ones called,” he said. “We have the best rescue dogs.”
Asked how the quake that struck this cluster of ancient hilltop towns in the early hours of Wednesday compared, Lacueva said: “It’s hard, it’s tragic, for sure. For Europe, this is very dramatic. We were hoping to find there were fewer victims.”
According to Lacueva, if Blackie barks it means there is someone alive less than two metres beneath the rubble. Firefighters and other members of the rescue team must then work carefully, digging often by hand, to pull the victim to safety.
If the dog does not bark, it means heavy machinery can be sent in to clear the debris. “But they still have to be careful,” he said. “In case there are dead bodies.”
A dog searches through the rubble in Amatrice. Photograph: Roma/Rex/Shutterstock
Sniffer dogs are really only useful in situations like these for the first three days, Lacueva added. Beyond that, it is unlikely anyone will have survived without water. But he, too, was hopeful: “I’m convinced that there are more people to be found. We’re going to find them. We’ll sleep when we’re back in Spain.”
Lorenzo Botti, 59, a firefighter from Rome, said about 50 sniffer dogs were involved in the rescue effort in Amatrice. Throughout the day, the dominant sounds were of their barking – and the rumble of heavy machinery, digging through piles of rubble.
Maybe 15 survivors, including several children, had been pulled alive from the rubble overnight, Botti said: “And for that, there are no words. It’s an emotional feeling inside, that makes you feel alive.”
Still, the grizzled firefighter admitted, those rescued alive represented just a fraction of those trapped in the piles of fallen masonry and twisted metal.
“I don’t like to count the number of dead bodies,” he said. “There are so many children.”
Rescuers carry a person from the rubble. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
In the early hours of the morning, Botti and his team found the body of a young boy. “He was three or four years old,” he said.
Hampering rescue efforts for Botti and the others is the continued instability of the city which, he said, was “still in serious danger”. Later in the day, a major aftershock rocked the town’s remains, razing several more houses.
For some residents of Amatrice and their families, the firefighters were their last hope. Lea d’Angela, 52, begged local police to let her into the town in search of her mother. “If she is alive, we will find her,” said one of the officers. “But right now, there is nothing you can do here.”
D’Angela was born in Amatrice and lived there until she was 26. Her parents’ house was in the medieval town centre, the neighbourhood hardest hit by the quake, with an estimated 80% of its buildings destroyed.
Her father was pulled from the rubble on Wednesday night and was now in hospital, on dialysis. “He’s alive, but he’s not in a good condition,” she said. “The house crushed him.”
Flanked by her three teenage children, also visibly distraught, she said she hoped her mother was still alive somewhere in the ruins. “I’m so worried,” she said. “The rescuers are doing such good work. But I just hope they find my mother.”
Rescue workers search the rubble. Photograph: Roma/Rex/Shutterstock
Mauro Renzo, 20, was equally grateful. “They’re brave,” he said. “I saw them go into some buildings in bad shape, very dangerous. But they just keep digging.”
Renzo’s family had escaped, but many friends were not so lucky. “There are so many dead,” he said, his voice breaking. “This should never have happened.”
As the day wore on, the rescuers began to tire. A group of officers from the Italian Red Cross gathered around the boot of their car, wiping sweat from their foreheads, brushing dust from their clothes and ripping open packets of food.
“There’s nothing left of Amatrice,” said the group’s leader, who declined to give his name. “How would you feel? We’re just trying to find people alive. We’ve seen people survive two, three days. We always have hope.”
But Cristiano Bartolome, another firefighter standing nearby, was less optimistic. He had been working all night and, despite removing 60 dead bodies from the rubble, had not found anyone alive. “This is my sixth national emergency in Italy,” he said. “Psychologically, it’s been the hardest. I’m so tired.”
Further down the hill was a team from the Italian volunteer emergency organisation Misericordie. A man in his 30s, who asked not to be named, said they had been ferrying bodies from the rubble-strewn town to a makeshift morgue on the other side of the hill, where family members could identify the victims.
“It’s not an easy job,” he admitted. “How are we supposed to feel? We’re all volunteers here. We all have family, kids. It’s devastating.”
As he spoke, another ambulance drove by. The driver held up three fingers: three more bodies, pulled from the rubble of Amatrice.
