Firefighter gives it all for disaster-hit hometown

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By CGTN's Tao Yuan

Youzhong Zeren had just come out of the shower. After a hard day’s training, it was bed time and perhaps the sweetest moment for emergency services personnel.

The news of a major earthquake shaking his hometown hundreds of kilometers away soon wiped out Zeren’s fatigue.

A firefighter and his family in the quake

He is based at the Sichuan Fire Control Brigade headquarters in the provincial capital of Chengdu. However, his mother, brother, and relatives were living right within the epicenter area. He grew up in a village inside Jiuzhaigou National Park, helping his family with their photo business for the tourists who traveled to the UNESCO World Heritage Site.

“I had to go home,” he said. “That was the only thing I could think of.”

Communications at the epicenter were cut off after the quake on August 8. Zeren didn’t know whether his family was safe or not. His troop assembled and set out. This was the most agonizing moment of Zeren’s life. “On my way there, I had tears in my eyes. I couldn’t imagine anything could be worse,” he said.

It was after several excruciating hours that he finally heard from his brother. Luckily, none of his immediate family was hurt.

“I thought as long as they were safe, everything was going to be okay,” said the young firefighter.

Zeren didn’t go home, though he wanted nothing more than that. “I had to follow orders,” he said. He knew that in such a tremor, time means life and death. During the next three days, Zeren searched for survivors without stopping for a meal.

“The first two days, I only had two bottles of water. My whole body was shaking,” he said. It wasn’t until the rescue operation ended that he heard he had lost his cousin. “He was so young,” he said, “only 19 years old.”

In the three hours he has got to spend with his family since the earthquake struck, there was nothing but silence around them. “I just wanted to see them,” he said. “It doesn’t matter if we talked or not.”

A firefighter's working priority and duty

“I worried about my little brother so much,” said Zeren’s older brother, Zhaxi Luobu. “I often thought what he would have been doing, whether he was safe or not. However, His job decides that he has a duty to serve people.”

Zhaxi was eager to tell us about the cousin they had lost, but Zeren stopped him from touching on this topic. “They would start crying, and I’d start crying if I saw them cry,” said Zeren.

His working priority now is post-quake fire prevention, making sure villagers who have been camping out in the open do not cause any manmade disasters due to mishandling of fire and electricity.

Working in his hometown and among his people, Zeren realizes he has lost another beloved friend – the natural wonder of waterfalls and lakes that were once his playground.

“It used to be such a beautiful place,” he said, pointing at a drained pond where he used to swim and fish, though both were against the rules. “It breaks my heart to see it like this.”

Ecological experts say the damage to Jiuzhaigou National Park can be restored. But Zeren seems unconvinced. He worries about what the future holds for his people who used to count on tourism for a living.

Right now though, he can only work to ensure their safety.

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