As efforts continue to search the rubble of the collapsed Weiguan Jinlong complex in Tainan’s Yongkang District (永康) following Saturday’s magnitude 6.4 earthquake, stories of personal sacrifices by rescue workers from across the nation have started to surface, including some who gave up far more than their Lunar New Year holiday in the race to save lives.
Chiayi City special rescue squad captain Hsu Shao-tang (徐紹唐) directed rescue efforts on Saturday and Sunday, even though his father was hospitalized. He only left the disaster site on Monday to see his father after the hospital contacted him to say his father was in critical condition.
Hsu’s father passed away on Tuesday, and Hsu said that he would rejoin the search and rescue efforts after he puts his father’s affairs in order.
Photo: Ritchie B. Tongo, EPA
A soldier named Ma Ping-han (馬秉涵) was also among those working on the Weiguan Jinlong site, even though his own family’s home in Tainan also collapsed during the quake.
A post yesterday on the “Ministry of National Defense spokesman” Facebook page said Ma rushed home after learning about the loss of his family’s home, but stayed only half a day to get his family resettled before rushing back to camp to volunteer to rejoin the ranks of rescue personnel.
A firefighter from Keelung named Wu Hsin-hsien (吳信憲) also put the call of duty before family time, joining rescue efforts on Tuesday — just five days after he got married.
Some rescuers have continued to work despite being injured, including Cheng Jung-kuei (鄭榮貴), deputy captain of the Chiayi volunteer special rescue brigade.
Cheng was operating an excavator at noon yesterday when the excavator’s arm caught on a steel bar, which sprang back and hurtled toward him, puncturing a thigh. He only went to the hospital after realizing that blood from the wound had spread through his trousers.
Lee Yuan-lung (李元龍), a squad captain from New Taipei City’s special search brigade, said on Facebook that he sprained an ankle after his foot got caught in electrical wiring during a search on Saturday.
Lee said that he taped up the ankle, took some anti-inflammatory medication and muscle relaxants, and returned to the rescue effort.
It was not until he returned home on Tuesday after his crew was rotated out that he unwrapped the ankle and discovered it was severely swollen and bruised.
“On site, we do not think about too much else, we just focus only on how to get the rescue mission done. Only when the job is done do we think about our injuries,” Lee wrote.
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