Rescuers working in Catia La Mar, Venezuela, pulled a man alive from the rubble of a collapsed building on Wednesday, more than eight days after twin earthquakes buried him under 140 tonnes of debris. The man, identified as Hernán Gil, had been on duty in a small concrete booth in the basement of a parking lot next to the Galerias Playa Grande mall when the quakes struck on June 24.
According to the BBC, emergency workers had first located Gil on Saturday, launching a round-the-clock rescue effort that drew teams from Venezuela, Chile, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Mexico, Portugal, and the United States. The concrete booth where he had been working appears to have created a protective shell around him, shielding him from the full weight of the collapse.
A Chilean firefighter described the operation as "without doubt the most complex and technically difficult which I've had to tackle." Parts of the access ducts that rescuers built to reach Gil collapsed several times, putting both the rescue teams and Gil himself at risk. Overnight, teams were finally able to establish visual contact with him through a small camera inserted into the rubble.
In footage captured by that camera, a Chilean firefighter asked Gil to turn his head toward the lens. One of his eyes was bloodshot. He was wearing a face mask that rescuers had earlier passed to him through a small hole to protect him from dust and debris. The firefighter asked him to put on goggles as digging continued around him.
Ricardo Arias from the Costa Rican Red Cross said Gil was in stable condition and had been given water and connected to an intravenous drip. Arias said Gil appeared to have escaped being crushed. "He has told us that he does not even have a crushed nail," he said. "He is fine."
Marco Antonio Franco from the Mexican Red Cross described Gil as upbeat throughout the ordeal. He told Mexican news site Milenio that Gil "even asked for hydration drinks of specific flavours he likes," and that "of course we indulged him." Franco added that Gil kept pushing the rescuers forward. "He himself drives us on, telling us to carry on. He recognises our team members, saying 'how nice that you came back and that you're with me again,'" Franco said.
The twin earthquakes that trapped Gil have killed nearly 2,300 people, with tens of thousands still listed as missing. Hundreds of rescuers had been working against the clock since Gil was first found. His survival after more than 100 hours of confirmed entrapment was described by those involved in the rescue as extraordinary.
