Emotional reunion as quake survivor hugs rescue dog, despite fear

Emotional moments arose when a 46-year-old man, who had been trapped in the quake rubble for three days, reunited with his rescuer, a dog, which spotted him under the concrete blocks of collapsed buildings in southern Turkiye to save the man, who is scared of dogs.

Mehmet Cabuk was trapped in debris of the apartment building which he was serving as a doorman in Kahramanmaras, when two massive earthquakes rocked southern Turkiye on 6 February, Anadolu News Agency reports.

It was Cakil, the rescue dog, which spotted him during the search and rescue efforts of the teams.

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He was pulled out the of the rubble after the teams of Disaster Management Agency, fire brigades and police worked 12 hours to save him.

Following his treatment at hospital, Cabuk wanted to meet with Cakil.

Teams realised his request and Cabuk and Cakil met in front of the wreckage of the building where he was saved.

The doorman, who is afraid of dogs, forgot about it and hugged Cakil.

“You are my dear; this is the dog that saved me. You are my lad.”

Speaking to Anadolu, Cabuk said when he woke up during the earthquake in his apartment on the ground floor, he first thought that a thief had entered the apartment. He later realised that there was an earthquake when he saw the stairs in the building were destroyed.

“I called out ‘Is there anyone to save me.’ On the first day, someone said, ‘We will save you’ and left. On the second day, I slept a little, looked at the clock, it was morning again. I called out again to see if there was anyone to save me, and there was no one,” he said.

In the early morning of the third day under the debris, he asked for help again and he first heard Cakil’s voice outside.

Later, a rescue worker approached and contacted him.

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“A person said, ‘If you can hear my voice, hit concrete three times,’ I had an adze with me. I hit it three times. After that, I heard their voice. ‘Are you ok?’ they asked, ‘Yes, I’m fine.’ I said. The dog was still barking,” he elaborated.

“They drilled a small hole at 8 am and rescued me at 8.30 pm. They later took me to hospital.”

Cabuk returned to the scene the day after he was rescued to see Cakil.

“The dog recognised me immediately. We hugged each other. If it weren’t for the dog, they wouldn’t have been able to find me,” he said.

After he was pulled out from the rubble, Cabuk said he overcame his fear of dogs.

“I love Cakil. I was afraid of dogs; I could never get close (to any dog). I got over my fear, thank God, I’m not afraid of dogs anymore,” he added.

Ergin Yilmaz, and expert dog trainer at Ankara Fire Department, said he could not forget the rescue of Cabuk and his reunion with Cakil.

“When (we saw) Cabuk hugging our dog and thanking him, we said ‘this is it’. At that moment, we felt that we got what we paid for. I cannot describe the emotion and furore of that moment,” he added.

On 6 February, two powerful earthquakes – magnitude 7.7 and 7.6 – struck southern Turkiye.

The massive tremors, centred in Kahramanmaras province, also shook 10 other provinces – Hatay, Gaziantep, Adiyaman, Malatya, Adana, Diyarbakir, Kilis, Osmaniye, Sanliurfa and Elazig.

More than 45,000 people were killed in the earthquakes in Turkiye and some 13.5 million people have been affected, with thousands of buildings collapsing in its wake.

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