Rescue leader dedicated to his job
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Working in this remote Tibetan autonomous prefecture, Shi Huajie's cell phone number ends in 999, an emergency rescue code.
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Shi Huajie, chief of the armed police force unit in Yushu, guides rescue work in Gyegu town of Yushu prefecture days after the earthquake. |
"This is a reminder to always act swiftly and help people as soon as possible," said Shi, chief of the armed police force unit in Yushu.
Which is exactly what he did on the morning of April 14, when the catastrophic quake hit.
At 5:39 am, a 4.7-magnitude quake woke him from sleep. He got up quickly and ordered 650 officers and soldiers to dress and wait for orders.
When nothing happened for two hours, they started to drill on the grounds as usual. At 7:49 am, the surrounding mountains roared and in seconds buildings around the camp disappeared and ashes flew into the air.
The soldiers were shocked by the tremor, which knocked some of them down.
Shi is short, strong and decisive. As leader of the only armed police force unit in the township, he divided his soldiers into 40 small rescue teams within eight minutes and sent them to nearly every corner of this tiny town of Gyegu, the seat of Yushu county.
Leading one team himself, Shi saved lives by hand after the 7.1-magnitude earthquake left many people buried under debris. "In the absence of heavy equipment, most rescue workers and soldiers were using their hands to sift through rubble looking for survivors," said Shi.
That morning, Shi also sent a team to a detention center, 12 km away from the town. More than 100 detainees in the detention center of earthquake-hit Yushu prefecture were safely transferred, with none killed in the earthquake or escaping during transfer.
"We protected the safety of those detainees," said Shi, adding that the only detention center in Yushu was badly damaged in the quake.
Once rescue units from around the nation arrived in Yushu, Shi said his army maintained order in the disaster-stricken area, adding that local people in Yushu are very kind and honest and have been cooperating very well with rescue forces.
"Our soldiers and the local people are working hand in hand, and that's the foundation for stability," he said.
But he did not rule out the possibility of small-scale looting. "It happens anywhere that is hit by a huge disaster," he said. "But I firmly believe that no violence will occur because the rescue work is going well and the people here are kind."
Shi's armed police camp is covered with tents and filled with soldiers, journalists and Tibetan quake-victims.
"Now I'm asking the soldiers to clean up all the bricks from the fallen fence wall," said Shi.
As Yushu is about 800 km from provincial capital Xining and there is only one expressway leading from it to the rest of the province, the high transportation cost makes building materials extremely expensive.
An armed policeman for almost three decades, Shi has worked in Yushu for six years, though his family is in the provincial capital.
He has pledged to put the same effort into reconstructing the camp as he would in rebuilding his own home.
"We will reuse every brick we can find from the debris," said Shi, looking at the ruined camp in tears.
