A year after the earthquake, KSF soldiers report for search-for operation

The KSF's search-saving unit, and that of K9, the unit that operates with dogs, would come to the aid of the residents of Durres and Thumma, those in which the quake had hit the most.

They would dig beneath the ruined objects to extract bodies that had been trapped as a result of earth's shocks.

Research-saving operations over and over again, day and night, until the extraction of all troops, well remembers Sergeant Lulzim Rexhepi, the first deputy officer of the search-saving company.

“We were launched immediately after the order, November 26, we arrived there, the first two days, and one night we acted without letup during the action in search of and rescue, the extraction of people, all that work has gone very well professionally, it has been hard, exhausting and stressful work, but above all, we have achieved what we have even gone there” he relates.

In addition to Durres, major damage was caused in Thumana. In fact, after the early November 26th morning earthquake, Albania faced other persistent earth quakes even the following but smaller days.

This caused residents to remain in fear of the destruction of buildings that had been rescued with little damage from their first blow.

There tents were set up for the inhabitants, and night was passed over like a camp.

Sergeant Adnan Krasniqi, who serves in the urban search-saving platoon, shows that the situation in Thumana has been much worse than he could imagine before leaving Kosovo.

I didn't expect it that way, the situation has been heavier than we expected, but knowing our professionalism and training that we develop to be professional in these tasks and to face these tasks, of course we've succeeded, even though we've certainly been human and we have family, the situation has been alarming in there by residents, panic, people under the rubble, but we don't fall into the influence of emotions and lose our professionalism in the task and the mission that we've had there, say the <11x>

The quake's epicenter was six miles [10 km] from Durres, a city that lost dozens of people and suffered severe quake destruction.

Rexhepi says the digital camera was what made your search from distance to ruined objects easier.

“We have acted in Durres, there have been urban search-saving teams and the K9 team, and we have been co-operating with the search-saving teams from countries in the region that have participated there, once we have been the first international team to help Albania's authorities. We've been looking for two people who lost their lives and a live person from the ruins in Durres”, he recalls.

Despite his experience in the search-saving unit, the operation in Thumana remains one of the most painful events Sergeant Rexhepi has experienced during his mission to the KSF.

The painful “that we have seen from family members, we heard them talking about their families living under the rubble, and we have also been moved because we have encountered bodies alive under the rubble, and when they have been pulled out because of the huge wounds they have suffered, and the oppressions from the various concrete plates, have changed lives, we have also raised victims that have been exciting and touching to us, but not that we should stop and fall on the impact of emotion, we have continued our work without interrupting until the last body was recovered from the last ruins, he relates.

A day after the November 26th earthquake, Force Day was marked in Kosovo, but this time it was found in mourning.

We've done nothing more than do our job and our job, we've done more than brother to brother who does”, you've declared KSF commander, General Canthman Rama.

In December of last year, KSF members accepted from Albania's president, Ilir Meta, Eagle's Golden Fines, in thanks for helping out after the earthquake in Albania.

No thanks had been lacking for the known KSF dog that was part of the search-saving. The same had been able to locate a person who was taken out of the ruins of Thumana alive and located lifeless bodies under the rubble.

The November 26th earthquake directly and indirectly affected 202 thousand people and caused a balance of 51 victims and 913 injured. 11 municipalities were affected, including two of the largest and most populated, such as Tirana and Durres. The consequences were also felt in the municipalities of Shijak, Kruja, Kamza, Kavaja, Kurbin, Lezha, Rrogozyna and Mirdita.