An Australian disaster response team has returned home after a six-day mission in Vanuatu scouring shattered buildings for survivors following a devastating earthquake.
When they arrived, the Queensland team was rushed to three main sites in Port Vila, which was struck by the magnitude 7.3 quake last Tuesday, killing at least 12 people and injuring at least 200.
Local authorities were “quite keen for us to arrive” and take control, Queensland Fire Department disaster assistance response team leader Doug May said on Monday night, after the team returned to Brisbane.
“We got off the plane, they herded us up and got us into vehicles and got us straight to site, so we were front and centre from the beginning,” he said.
Part of the team immediately went to the collapsed Billabong surf shop on Port Vila's main street, where canine handlers did a preliminary search and the team used listening devices and search cameras.
“We were there until 3am and then came back again at 5.30am, when the local teams started again,” Mr May said.
“We worked with the locals and the New Zealand team when they arrived, to strip back that site, piece by piece, regularly, searching, checking, listening, trying to find any further signs of life.”
While no survivors were found, "it did provide closure to those who had lost their loved ones on the site … there were numerous bodies inside", he said.
The team brought 22 tonnes of equipment and rapidly set up its own base, allowing it to send out engineering teams into the field to start assessments.
The Queensland-based team of 66 included ambulance paramedics, a doctor, two engineers, two canine handlers, and the remainder were Fire and Rescue firefighters and senior officers.
Drones were used to assess a landslide blocking the port, which was believed to have a bus and cars underneath it, and the team also went to another landslide near the airport to assess the area.
“The number of engineering tasks escalated as we were finding more sites and as they were finding more places that needed assessment,” Mr May said.
“So when the rescuers were clear, we kicked off rapid damage assessment in the Port Vila area.”
Across two-and-a-half days, the team checked the entire island, conducting almost 1300 damage assessments.
“To get that much information in that amount of time is a capability very few other people have,” Mr May said.
“In Queensland, of course, we’re the most disaster-prone state in Australia and we exercise this capability annually.”
Nearly 700 Australians have been evacuated from Vanuatu to Brisbane Airport on 10 RAAF fights since Wednesday.
The federal government has announced an additional $5 million in humanitarian aid to Vanuatu.
The number of deaths and injuries is expected to rise as search and rescue operations continue.
A second Australian Medical Assistance Team of 17 members arrived in Vanuatu on Monday.
