Earthquakes in Venezuela | The extraordinary rescue of Hernán Gil, the man who spent 8 days under the rubble after the earthquakes | La Guaira

Dozens of rescuers from seven countries worked non-stop for more than 100 hours in the “complex and dangerous” rescue of a man who spent eight days under the rubble of a building collapsed by the earthquakes of Venezuela.

Gil was in a small concrete hut, located in the basement of the parking lot adjacent to the Galerías Playa Grande shopping center in Catia La Mar, when the two consecutive earthquakes occurred.

The underground location where he was prevented him from leaving in time when the 7.2 and 7.5 magnitude earthquakes shook that region of Venezuela on June 24.

But that small space protected him: “It functioned as a sarcophagus. It was able to remain these first days until we arrived,” Ezequiel Gallardo, a liaison officer for the Chilean firefighters who participated in the rescue, told BBC Mundo.

Wagner Leiva, head of emergency response for the Costa Rican Red Cross, recalled the moment they located him: “We were removing and cutting some slabs when they told us that there seemed to be someone alive (…) we went down to the basement and one of our colleagues, after calling and listening, detected that someone was indeed responding.”

The angle for Gil’s exit “was not the easiest,” Gallardo explained, so they had to break concrete slabs very carefully to avoid a new collapse on the place where he was protected.

“The good thing is that it was very well tolerated. We were able to do a very aggressive resuscitation with 11 liters in less than 72 hours,” said Borgna.

In images recorded by a small camera inserted into the rubble where he was trapped, a Chilean firefighter was heard asking Gil to turn his head towards the camera.

He had a red eye and was wearing a mask, which the rescuers had previously given him through a small hole to protect him from the dust and debris generated by the rescue efforts.

The firefighter also asked him to put on protective goggles to protect his eyes while rescuers continued to carefully remove the debris around him.

Rescuers and other helpers and volunteers, about 200 people, worked non-stop in the last few hours to create a safe channel and free the security guard.

Wagner Leiva told the agency Reuters which, given the precarious nature of the rescue efforts, had to proceed very slowly.

“Last night, at approximately 10:00 p.m. (local time), we managed to establish physical contact with Hernán.”

The task was successful and on Thursday morning, Gil was extracted in good physical condition after more than 100 hours since the first contact.

A paramedic from the Costa Rican Red Cross, Allan Madrigal, was able to say a few words to him: “What I wanted was simply to tell him that God has a great purpose for him,” he told BBC Mundo.