SINGAPORE — Workers’ Party head and Leader of the Opposition Pritam Singh honoured local heroes, the “Lionhearts of SCDF,” personnel from the Singapore Civil Defense Force being sent to Türkiye and Syria in the wake of a devastating earthquake that killed over 20,000 people.
Mr Singh wrote that SCDF’s decision to send individuals from its elite DART (Disaster Assistance & Rescue Team) to provide humanitarian assistance “was received with warmth, and not a small amount of pride.”
He also posted a photo with Mr Mohammad Fitri, a resident from his ward, Eunos, whom he had encountered during house visits on Thursday (Feb 9), who happens to be a member of DART.
“So proud of him and his colleagues… Wishing them well and a safe return home,” the Aljunied GRC MP wrote.
He also wrote that, like many others, he had seen clips on social media of the “very harrowing, distressing clips covering the recent earthquake in Türkiye and Syria,” adding that “The sight of collapsed/collapsing buildings, the destruction wrought, and the lives and families lost, has weighed on me in a way which is not easy to put into words.”
In 2008, the International Search and Rescue Advisory Group (INSARAG) classified the SCDF as a Heavy Urban Search And Rescue (USAR) Team, the first organisation in the Asia-Pacific region to receive this distinction.
A dedicated 79-member contingent, codenamed Operation Lionheart, is on standby round-the-clock. Their core function is to provide urban search and rescue and/or humanitarian relief assistance to countries afflicted by major disasters.
The team is made up of SCDF’s DART as well as rescuers from frontline units, including Operationally Ready National Service (ORNS) men.
On Wednesday (Feb 8), the SCDF first announced its Operation Lionheart Deployment to Türkiye, saying it would send an advance team of 20 personnel led by LTC Lok Wee Keong, DART’s commander, to help with the disaster rescue efforts.
The following day, SCDF announced that an additional 48 SCDF personnel started preparing for deployment to Türkiye as well.
“The entire 68-member contingent will comprise officers from the elite Disaster Assistance and Rescue Team (DART), operations officers, medical doctors, paramedics, search specialists with four canines, hazardous materials assessment officers and support officers,” SCDF said in a Facebook post.
“This will give the Operation Lionheart (OLH) contingent greater scope, scale and capacity to carry out more sustained and prolonged Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) operations within affected areas. This is the 20th OLH overseas deployment since 1990.”
In a later update, SCDF wrote that together with a rescue team from Spain, the advance rescue team was able to rescue a boy who had been caught in a collapsed building in Dulkadiroğlu.
/TISG
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