Epicenter 18 Warriors
Special topic: Wenchuan earthquake in Sichuan
"Disaster is command and time is life". After Wenchuan County’s "5.12" earthquake with a magnitude of 8.0 on the Richter scale, in the face of this sudden disaster, at the critical moment when people’s lives in the disaster area were seriously threatened, 18 warriors of the first batch of earthquake relief commandos from Aba Prefecture, Sichuan Province, marched on foot for more than 40 hours and more than 200 miles with dauntless heroism in the face of many difficulties such as aftershocks, landslides, harsh environment and difficult conditions.
Race against time and fight against death, 18 warriors are the first fire rescue team to go to Wenchuan County for disaster relief. They searched and rescued the trapped people for the first time; First time to repair the power plant, so that Wenchuan County resumed power supply for the first time; Send "life-saving water" to 600 million people in the disaster area at the first time; The first time they fought in the most difficult and dangerous frontier … So far, they are still fighting in the front line of earthquake relief …
Warriors who entered the disaster area walked for more than 40 hours and traveled more than 200 miles.
At 14: 40 on May 12, after receiving an urgent order from the state government, Aba Prefecture Fire Brigade led 18 officers and men, dispatched 3 rescue vehicles and special equipment led by Ye Guangyuan, political commissar of the detachment, and rushed to the Wenchuan disaster area in the epicenter. The situation along the way was dangerous, with heavy rain, aftershocks, landslides, mudslides, road deformation, and huge stones piling up … making the March extremely difficult. Ye Guangyuan’s political commissar took the lead, and Xin Ping’s chief of staff courageously took the lead, setting an example for the officers and men and taking the initiative to rush to the front of the team. The morale of the officers and men was greatly encouraged, and while clearing the road obstacles, they stubbornly advanced to the disaster area. However, the closer we get to Wenchuan, the more difficult the journey becomes. When the team goes to the Gulgou section of Lixian County (more than 90 kilometers away from Wenchuan County), the vehicles can no longer move forward. Political commissar Ye Guangyuan ordered with the courage and perseverance of a soldier: "Never delay a minute, even if you climb, you must climb to Wenchuan"! It was decided to leave three drivers, namely Xu Guorong, Liu Yang and Ye Chuntao, to stay in the rescue vehicle, and then drive the rescue vehicle to Wenchuan after the road was clear. The remaining 15 officers and men each carried more than 20 kilograms of rescue equipment and walked to the Wenchuan disaster area overnight.
It was extremely difficult to travel on foot. After 12 kilometers, aftershocks occurred again, and the mountain landslides continued along the way. The sound of flying stones was as horrible as thunder, and the earthquake disaster almost made it impossible. In addition, it was dark at night and the rain was heavy, so the officers and men had to struggle and crawl in the "forbidden area of life".
Despite the harsh conditions, the officers and men insisted on walking forward, which attracted great attention from china national radio, and conducted a live online interview with Ye Guangyuan, political commissar of the detachment. Political commissar Ye Guangyuan said: Although the rescue road to the disaster area is dangerous, it is the bounden duty and duty of fire officers and soldiers to save the lives of the people in the disaster area. If we arrive one second early, it is possible to save one more person. Even if we go through fire and water, even if we are smashed to pieces, we will make rapid progress!
Aftershocks are still happening, and stones fall from mountain to mountain, so the officers and men can’t care about their personal safety. Under the leadership of political commissar Ye Guangyuan, the expedition led by chief of staff Xin Ping charged all the way ahead. When traveling 10 kilometers away from Lixian city, people called it the "ghost gate" section, the officers and men ignored the local people’s dissuasion, and the mountain kept falling stones, which might be in danger of death at any time, and resolutely walked forward quickly. After struggling with death, the perseverance and courage of 15 officers and men finally conquered the "death gate" and passed safely.
The officers and men climbed mountains, crossed rivers and mountains, and arrived in Lixian County on foot for more than 100 hours in a row. Guo Haitao, deputy instructor of Lixian Brigade, neglected the safety of his daughter who went to school in Dujiangyan, the hardest hit area, and his wife who went to work in Wenchuan County, the epicenter, and actively accepted the orders of the superior troops and quickly joined the ranks of commandos.
Along the way, heavy rain continued, mud was everywhere, mudslides continued, and destroyed vehicles and dead people were seen in many places. The officers and men overcame hunger and fatigue in the extreme state and rushed through dozens of road breaks where boulders and mudslides rolled. The tenacious style of the officers and men and their persistent spirit of caring for the safety of the people in the disaster areas touched the people along the way. Many people sent water, drinks and guidance to lead the way. Sixteen officers and men walked more than 100 miles again despite difficulties and obstacles. At about 14 noon on May 14th, four members, Guo Haitao, Zhou Wenqiang, Li Jinguo and Ma Xiaolong, led by Xin Ping, chief of staff, arrived in Wenchuan County for the first time, and the rest of them arrived safely, winning the first victory of marching on foot and becoming the first fire rescue team to arrive in the disaster area of Wenchuan County.
More than 40 hours of forced March is a test of perseverance and courage for officers and men. Due to the rugged road shape and fast progress, five or six blood bubbles were formed on the feet of officers and men, and two or three blisters were at least. Some of their faces were scratched by thorns, and some of their feet were cut by stones, but none of the officers and men retreated and were discouraged. Ma Xiaolong, a new soldier, carries more than 20 kilograms of mobile chain saws, and Li Jinguo, a third-phase sergeant, carries heavy rescue equipment and has been charging ahead; Zhou Wenqiang, a third-phase petty officer, took off his clothes and wrapped them in cameras and cameras in heavy rain, regardless of the dangers on the way, and collected touching pictures of officers and men in a sinister environment; Pu Decai, the vice captain of the squadron directly under the company, took the lead in carrying heavy relief equipment and took the initiative to undertake the task of observation and vigilance; With great patience and perseverance, political commissar Ye Guangyuan overcame many difficulties, such as high blood pressure and rapid physical overdraft, and kept the marching speed, and constantly encouraged officers and men in various ways, so that the troops always maintained high morale; With excellent physical quality, tenacious and courageous fighting style, Chief of Staff Xin Ping led the commandos to charge at the forefront of extreme danger. During the March, he left the danger to himself first.
Fire officers and soldiers came … Fire officers and soldiers came … Many people in Wenchuan County were filled with tears and excited after seeing the fire officers and soldiers, which made the people in the disaster area see hope.
On the evening of May 15th, three drivers, Xu Guorong, Liu Yang and Ye Chuntao, ignored the danger of flying rocks along the way, and after more than 100 hours of hard travel day and night, they also safely delivered large-scale rescue equipment and rescue vehicles to Wenchuan, providing a guarantee for earthquake relief.
To repair the power supply, the warriors soaked in muddy water for more than 10 hours.
After the commandos arrived in Wenchuan, they didn’t have time to rest for a moment. They immediately set up the earthquake relief headquarters of Aba fire brigade with political commissar Ye Guangyuan as the chief commander, and made arrangements for the earthquake relief work. And immediately received the first urgent task of Aba Prefecture Earthquake Relief Headquarters: to repair Xiazhuang Power Plant and restore power supply to important departments in Wenchuan City as soon as possible.
After the earthquake, the power supply facilities in Wenchuan County were severely damaged, which brought great difficulties to the rescue of the wounded, and the lives of thousands of injured people were dying and in danger …
Time is life. One minute earlier, it is possible to save one more life. On May 15th, the officers and men of the commando team didn’t have time to rest for a moment, and risked being crushed, crushed and buried by the collapse of rocks at any time. They walked for more than two hours and more than 20 miles and went to Xiazhuang Power Plant for emergency repair.
After arriving at the power plant, the officers and men found that the 200-meter-long diversion channel of the power plant had accumulated a lot of collapsed stones and sediment, and the mountain might collapse at any time. None of the officers and men retreated. Under the demonstration of Dai Changqing’s deputy detachment and Xin Ping’s chief of staff, the officers and men jumped into the muddy water one by one and cleaned up the blocked gravel and sediment with tools and hands.
The channel cleaning work is extremely difficult, and it is less than 20 meters per hour. In the battle, some small soldiers can only show their shoulders above the muddy water, but they still insist on fighting. The officers and men didn’t rush to take a sip of water, let alone catch their breath. Some officers and men were injured in many places during the March, and their physical strength was seriously overdrawn, but no one was bitter and tired, and they continued to fight …
After more than 10 hours of continuous fighting, the stones and sundries accumulated in the water diversion channel have been cleaned up in a large scale, and the 200-meter-long water diversion channel has been excavated with a width of 2 meters. At this time, the hands of Wang Maoneng, Guo Haitao, Pu Decai, Xu Guorong, Deng Baiwei, Tang Wenguang, Wu Wei, Yang Yi, Hu Yong, Ma Xiaolong, Li Jinguo and many other officers and men, headed by Dai Changqing, chief of staff of Xin Ping, have also become bloody. After the water diversion was successful, the first group of generators generated electricity successfully after being tested by the technicians of the power plant.
The earthquake caused the water diversion channel of the power plant to be damaged to varying degrees, and a large number of sundries were blocked at the intake gate valve, so the water diversion flow of the newly excavated channel could not meet the normal power supply, and the power supply was interrupted instantly. Under the leadership of Xin Ping, the chief of staff, the officers and men of the commandos risked the huge impact of the river to quickly clean up the debris stuck in the intake gate valve. Comrade Pu Decai volunteered to go into the water at the first time. He quickly tied a safety rope and risked his life, and most of his body was immersed in the cold and dirty river water of the river dam. After more than three hours of hard struggle, all the sundries tightly wrapped in the gate valve were cleaned up, and the water diversion flow reached the normal power supply requirements, and the power was successfully sent to Weizhou Town Power Supply Station in Wenchuan County.
It lasted until late at night, and the officers and men returned to the camp. As soon as they entered the door, the officers and men only drank a few mouthfuls and fell asleep. Hot and hot food, no one to eat, really tired …
On May 16th, after 105 hours of power interruption in Wenchuan County, the power supply of waterworks, hospitals, government headquarters, public security, fire protection and other important departments was partially restored after emergency repair by commandos and electric technicians. The tenacious fighting style of officers and men was highly praised by Xiao Youcai, deputy commander of the Aba earthquake relief headquarters and deputy governor of the state government. Deputy Secretary Chen Guihua, the executive commander-in-chief of earthquake relief in Aba Prefecture, mentioned the significance of power supply, and used three "too" for the outstanding contribution and role of fire officers and soldiers: "It’s too hard, too effective, and too good for earthquake relief".
Don’t give up, don’t stop, the warriors are fighting at the forefront of the search and rescue of trapped people.
At 8 o’clock in the morning on the 18th, Aba Fire Fighting and Earthquake Relief Headquarters received a transfer order. Some people were buried in the earthquake behind Jiexin Garden Credit Cooperative in Wenchuan County. The rescue team has been searching and rescued for 2 days, but it still falls as follows. Zhang Fuchang, commander-in-chief and Xin Ping, deputy commander-in-chief of the earthquake relief headquarters of Aba Fire Force, quickly led the commandos and rushed to the scene for search and rescue with rescue equipment.
The officers and men found at the scene that there was a 2-storey residential building close to the mountain. The boulder and dust that had been collapsed by the earthquake were almost buried, and the search and rescue channel with a depth of more than 2 meters was dug behind the stairs of the house. Dozens of people on the scene were telling about the situation of the trapped people. According to the family members of the trapped people, the rescue team has been searching and rescuing for two days, and their whereabouts are still unknown. My wife may be buried in the toilet area, and her survival is slim.
Aftershocks keep happening, rocks fall from mountain to mountain, and time is life. The officers and men can’t care about their personal safety, let alone the danger of falling rocks from mountain, and quickly start search and rescue after readjusting the disaster relief plan. The officers and men used fire-fighting demolition and search and rescue equipment to transfer stones and dust. One hour, two hours and ten hours passed, and no signs of survivors were found in the search and rescue.
However, the officers and men still did not give up. With the joint efforts of a large number of other search and rescue teams mobilized later, they still did not stop searching, trying to get through the search and rescue channel for the first time and win the final victory of the rescue.
60,000 victims’ "life-saving water" infiltrated from the hearts of the warriors.
After the earthquake, the water supply pipe network in Wenchuan county was seriously damaged, and the domestic water and medical water for the affected people and disaster relief teams were all transported by fire forces.
Water is the source of life. Without it, everything will not survive. Water is the most needed material for human beings. Without it, human beings will also face extinction, which shows how important water is to more than 600 million people in disaster areas.
Commando officers and men took the initiative to shoulder this arduous task at the first time, transporting and supplying water to the county town and some surrounding towns and villages every day to solve the problem that people, students and disaster relief teams in disaster areas have difficulty in drinking water and using water.
The officers and men set out at 6 o’clock in the morning and returned to the team at 9 o’clock in the evening, using fire trucks to deliver water and fire hydrants to release water at fixed points. On average, more than 10 fire-fighting vehicles are dispatched every day, and more than 10 fire hydrants are opened at fixed points. The journey is more than 100 kilometers, and the water supply time is as long as 15 hours. The water supply and delivery amount is more than 500 tons, which ensures the domestic water supply of more than 600 million people in the disaster area.
When they learned that some important places were seriously short of water, the officers and men took the initiative to deliver water to them. After a medical clinic of an Air Force entered the disaster area of Mianchi Town, Wenchuan County on May 16th, due to the distance from the county seat and the large number of people gathered, the water used for medical treatment and domestic use was very tight, and the health of officers and soldiers in the medical clinic and the masses of the wounded could not be guaranteed, which brought a lot of inconvenience to the earthquake relief work. When the officers and men learned about this situation, they immediately dispatched two fire engines every day to deliver water to the officers and men of the medical clinic and the affected people regularly, so as to solve the problem of difficult water use and draught in the medical clinic. Subsequently, water was sent to health departments, medical places, schools, headquarters, disaster relief teams and other related units, which was well received by the disaster relief teams of the people in the disaster areas.
The scene of water delivery is touching. When the "water of life" flows out from the fire truck, the eyes of the people in the disaster area are moist, and the eyes of the officers and men are moist … The officers and men help the people to carry water, and the people wipe the sweat for the officers and men. The scenes truly interpret "the earthquake is heartless, and the soldiers and civilians are close to each other"!
By May 28th, the commandos had delivered more than 20,000 tons of water to the people in the disaster area and the disaster relief team.
Move the position, the warriors are still in the front line.
With the in-depth development of the earthquake relief work, the sanitation and epidemic prevention decontamination work in the disaster area has become the second battle, which is a top priority and urgent task. According to the unified arrangement of the earthquake relief headquarters of Aba fire brigade, the commando officers and soldiers continue to undertake the work of assisting the local sanitation and epidemic prevention departments to carry out sanitation and epidemic prevention decontamination in the disaster area.
On May 17, officers and men were ordered to go to the oil company to wash the open space seriously polluted by the corpse parked some time ago. After arriving at the scene, the officers and men ignored the psychological taboo and the residual smell of corpse, and risked being infected by bacteria and acted quickly. During the washing, the sewage wet the trouser legs of the officers and men, and mud splashed on their faces. However, the officers and men put all this behind them, added enough water pressure to wash them with all their strength, and after nearly two hours of hard work, they finally washed the open space with an area of 3 mu.
In the past few days, according to the requirements of the headquarters, the commandos sent rescue teams every day to wash and clean more than 20 public toilets temporarily used in Wenchuan County, creating a hygienic and clean environment for the people and rescue teams in the disaster areas, effectively curbing the occurrence and spread of epidemic and other infectious diseases in the disaster areas.
In this earthquake relief, 18 commando officers and men have withstood the test of life and death, resisted the concern for their families, carried forward the dedication of caring for everyone, and always maintained high morale and fighting style to overcome difficulties, and devoted themselves to the front line of earthquake relief. A number of advanced typical figures have emerged, such as Pu Decai, Ma Xiaolong, Deng Baiwei, Li Jinguo and Kuang Jianchong. One person was awarded a second-class merit by the firewire, another was awarded a third-class merit by the firewire, two people joined the the Communist Party of China (CPC), one person was reported to the Central Political and Legal Committee for commendation, and 18 people were all recommended as heroes of earthquake relief by the provincial public security department, becoming a sharp knife team and a team with amazing fighting capacity in the earthquake relief team of Aba Prefecture fire forces.
At present, these 18 officers and men are still at the forefront of earthquake relief, and continue to write new glories and new chapters in history with indomitable spirit and style!
Information on the first batch of 18 commandos who went to Wenchuan for earthquake relief.
Aba Prefecture Fire Brigade: Ye Guangyuan (political commissar of the detachment), Xin Ping (chief of staff of the detachment), Wang Maoneng (police staff), Zhou Wenqiang (squad leader), Liu Yang (driver), Pu Decai (vice captain directly under the squadron), Deng Baiwei (squad leader), Tang Wenguang (squad leader), Wu Wei (deputy squad leader), Xu Guorong (driver) and Ye Baiwei.
Reinforce the fire officers and soldiers stationed in Mianyang, Aba Prefecture to maintain stability in Tibetan areas: Huang Li (vice captain), Li Jinguo (acting platoon leader), Kuang Jianchong (acting platoon leader) and Xian Yuezhi (combatant).
Editor: Zhou Zhongxiao