Blue sky thinking

Yu Ruofei, 32, still remembers that, not long after he helped to establish the Lanzhou Blue Sky Rescue in 2013, the team received its first mission－to save a drowning child in Lintao county, about 80 kilometers from Lanzhou city, Gansu province. Unfortunately, by the time he arrived, the body of the child had already been dragged out of the water.

"We had only just formed the team, and didn't have the ability or equipment to retrieve the child. I didn't say anything on my way back to Lanzhou. However, I swore in my heart that I would try my best to make enough money to buy equipment and learn the necessary skills, so that, if I were to meet a similar situation again, I would be able to help," he adds.

That experience left a deep impression on the young man, and made him more resolute to follow his chosen path of working as a rescuer. Over the course of nearly a decade, he has organized the first professional rescue team in Gansu, embarked on more than 390 rescue missions to the sites of natural disasters, ranging from devastating earthquakes to torrential floods, saved 79 people and recovered the bodies of 366.

Yu's story started in 2012 following a flood and mudslide in his hometown in Minxian county, Gansu. Feeling anxious about the situation, Yu, who was an undergraduate student at Xi'an International University, asked for leave from school and returned home to work as a volunteer in the rescue team.

Upon returning to university, he joined Blue Sky Rescue in Shaanxi. "For me, at the very beginning, I was immature. Joining the team was about wearing the uniform and looking like a hero," says Yu.

In 2013, when an earthquake occurred in Ya'an city, Sichuan province, Yu responded with the BSR team. When he was resting on the steps in front of a local cinema, a director from Hunan Broadcasting System talked to him, and asked what he thought was the best form of rescue, to which Yu replied, "earning money to buy equipment and learning the techniques to save people as soon as possible". The director disagreed, saying: "I believe it is to impart rescue knowledge to others. When everyone knows how to protect and save themselves, they may no longer need others to come to their aid."

That conversation urged Yu to form his own rescue team at university, spreading information and teaching safety techniques through lectures and drills. At first, it was only university students who attended. Then, he organized training sessions in communities and rural areas. Over the years, he has given more than 700 lectures and rescue drills.

Also that year, after considering that there were no professional rescue teams in Gansu, he took it upon himself to establish one in Lanzhou, the provincial capital, with two other people. By 2015, the team evolved into Gansu BSR.