Fifty-six people took the oath at the central rescue organization of the disaster management agency after participating in a three-day simulation exercise in Hajdúszoboszló (eastern Hungary) at the Disaster Management Training and Supply Base — the Hajdú-Bihar County Disaster Management Directorate informed MTI in a statement on Wednesday.
Twenty-nine new HUNOR members took their oaths in a ceremonial setting, along with the twenty-seven people who successfully completed the exercise last November.
At the swearing-in ceremony, Fire Chief Major General Krisztián Erdélyi, Deputy Director General for Operations at the Ministry of the Interior’s National Directorate General for Disaster Management (BM OKF), emphasized that the HUNOR Rescue Organization is Hungary’s largest professional rescue team, whose members have voluntarily committed to being deployable both at home and abroad.
Recalling the history of the rescue organization, the general explained that they have been continuously on duty since their ceremonial founding in 2012.
He highlighted the week-long, intense mission following the 2023 earthquake in Türkiye, during which seventeen survivors, including three children, were rescued from the rubble of collapsed buildings.
Photo: MTI/Vasvári Tamás
The twenty-nine new recruits participated in a “system-adjustment exercise” from June 7–10: they had to rescue survivors trapped under buildings that had collapsed due to an earthquake. The search for and rescue of the injured were carried out using search dogs and special equipment.
Via MTI; Featured image: MTI/Vasvári Tamás
