Rescue Corps member was refused visa to help in earthquake zone
Saddened Broch mercy man back from China
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A north-east rescue worker, who jetted across the world to join the desperate search for survivors in earthquake-hit China, was back home yesterday after government officials quashed his mission.
John Anderson was one of 10 members of the International Rescue Corps who flew to Hong Kong last week to help sift through the rubble in devastated areas of Sichuan province.
The 56-year-old firefighter, of Dennyduff Road, Fraserburgh, had been told to brace himself for one of the toughest live-saving missions of his career.
But the Scottish team, which has its headquarters in Falkirk, had its application for visas refused by the Chinese government.
Members were told the country’s authorities were too busy co-ordinating their own rescue efforts to deal with aid from other countries.
Mr Anderson returned to the north-east on Sunday night after spending most of the day at London Heathrow waiting for the team’s specialist equipment to be transferred to a connecting flight.
“Its just maddening,” he said last night.
“We tried everything to get those visas. The problem was they had introduced new rules about letting people work in the country because of the Olympics.
“We had to be in China for 24 hours before we could apply, which wasn't a problem. But we had to confirm a hotel we would be staying in while we were working.
“The trouble was where we were working had been completely flattened. There were no hotels to speak of.
“But they wouldn’t listen.”
The team was in constant talks with the British consular officials who tried in vain to get them into the disaster zone.
Mr Anderson said: “It was so frustrating, because we had been told from day one that there wouldn’t be a problem. They gave us a checklist of all the equipment we needed to take with us and we had pretty much everything on the list.
“But in the end, they just didn't want to know. It came as a huge surprise to us.”
Mr Anderson and the other corps members stayed on Lamma Island, Hong Kong.
“We were made to feel really welcome by the villagers there,” he said. “And that just made us want to help more.”
He and the rest of the mercy crew got involved in local fundraising efforts for the earthquake victims.
“We were just a three-hour journey away from the earthquake zone,” he said. “It’s a real shame when you think of all the good we could have done.”
Mr Anderson signed up with the corps in 1986 but had his first overseas “shout” in January 1995 when a 7.2-magnitude quake shook the Kobe area of Japan.
He has since gone on rescue missions to Pakistan, India, Algeria, North America, Mozambique and Nicaragua.
He was honoured by then prime minister Tony Blair for helping rescue a woman from the collapsed Stockline factory in Glasgow in 2004.
