Ali Cakas, one of the Turkish firefighters looking for people and animals in the rubble of Turkey, rescued a cat from one of the buildings in the city of Nurdagi, in southeastern Turkey, and ended up adopting it.
The feline, which received the name of Enkaz (which means rubble, in Portuguese), he was trapped for 129 hours, that is, ten days and, after being saved, he refused to let the fireman go, writes the daily mail. In the social media, Enkaz appears sitting on Ali’s shoulder, who continued the rescue work.
A cat was saved from under the rubble in Turkey. It now refuses to leave its rescuer’s side. pic.twitter.com/Nveaxu3QrG
— Anton Gerashchenko (@Gerashchenko_en) February 16, 2023
The fireman, who is also the trainer of mountain biking of the Turkish national team, he kept the animal until the owner showed up, but as that did not happen, he ended up taking it home, in the city of Mardin. According to the American television channel abc7, Enkaz became the mascot of Ali’s fire department.
The earthquake that shook Turkey and Syria two weeks ago killed more than 45,000 people. Turkey has suspended rescue work with the exception of Kahramanmaras and Hatay, the two most affected provinces.
Last week, the Portuguese rescue team saved a dog that was trapped in the basement of a building for 200 hours and has already been handed over to its owner. The Joint Operational Force returned to Portugal on Saturday and will be received this week by the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.