Rescue veteran and firefighter Steve Davies is on the ground in Antakya, southern Turkey.
The window of survival was closing rapidly, he said.
"Me and my team have been out to Japan, Haiti, Nepal, Indonesia. We work with our international colleagues and train for these events, but this one is massive. "Everyone is saying the same, because of the scale of the devastation, most of the buildings have been impacted and are flattened, where as in other places it may have been individual sites that were impacted.""We're witnessing first hand the impact on families and survivors who are still trying to get to their loved ones," he said.
DEC chief executive Saleh Saeed said: "The stories we are now hearing from the survivors who have managed to escape the ruins of flattened and crumpled buildings without shoes and coats in the depths of winter are desperately sad."But what we do know is that help is already being delivered by 14 of our member charities using funds donated to the DEC. They are providing hot meals, blankets, and medical aid.
UK government development minister Andrew Mitchell said: "It is thanks to the generosity and compassion of the British people that the DEC Turkey-Syria Earthquake Appeal has reached within a matter of hours the extraordinary total of £32.9 million, which includes £5m of match funding from the British taxpayer."
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