Miraculous Rescue: Venezuelan Security Guard Found Alive Eight Days After Twin Earthquakes

Rescuers successfully extracted a 43-year-old security guard from a collapsed basement early Thursday, concluding a grueling multi-day operation that served as a beacon of hope following the devastating twin earthquakes that struck Venezuela eight days ago.

CATIA LA MAR, Venezuela — Hernán Alberto Gil Flores was safely pulled from the wreckage after being trapped beneath the debris of the Galerías Playa Grande shopping center in the coastal town of La Guaira since June 24. Search teams first established contact with him over the weekend.

Gil Flores, who was working the night shift at the complex, was inside his small security booth when the initial violent tremor hit. While the surrounding concrete structure collapsed, his workstation cabin remained intact, shielding him from heavy debris and providing a critical pocket of air that allowed him to survive.

“When we found him, he asked us not to tell his wife that he was alive, just in case he wouldn’t make it,” Minyar Collado, a rescuer with the Costa Rican Red Cross, told The Associated Press.

A specialized team from the Costa Rican Red Cross first detected signs of life and managed to establish communication with him on Sunday.

His wife, Gusbimar González, told the AP that she had endured days of profound despair before the contact was made. “When I learned he was alive, I saw a ray of light in the darkness,” she said. The couple has two children, aged 8 and 10.

The rescue mission was coordinated by a Chilean urban search and rescue team, which worked continuously alongside specialized units from the United States, Portugal, and Mexico.

Source link