Santa Barbara County Fire Captain Eric Gray has been deployed to Turkey to help find survivors from last week’s deadly earthquakes, according to the County Fire Department.
More than 41,000 people have died in Turkey and Syria following the 7.8 magnitude earthquake on February 6, which reduced thousands of buildings to rubble.
Gray is a member of the Los Angeles County Fire Department’s Urban Search-and-Rescue Team, which includes 161 members, 12 canines, and more than 170,000 pounds of specialized equipment. His team will be joining team members from the United States Agency for International Development already on the ground in Turkey and their counterpart, USA-1, from Fairfax County, Virginia, in helping to provide life-saving assistance. Gray and his team are expected to be in Turkey for up to two weeks.
Gray has previously been deployed on search-and-rescue missions to Nepal, Japan, and Puerto Rico following earthquakes in those countries and also searched for survivors with his canine partner, Riley, following 2018’s 1/9 Debris Flow in Montecito.
