Venezuelan security guard pulled alive from building basement 8 days after twin quakes
A Costa Rican Red Cross team detected signs of life first, and rescuers used tubing and a camera to keep him alive during the 100-hour operation.
- On Thursday, rescue crews pulled 44-year-old security guard Hernan Alberto Gil Flores from the collapsed Galerias Playa Grande mall in La Guaira, Venezuela, ending an eight-day entrapment following twin earthquakes on June 24.
- Twin earthquakes measuring 7.2 and 7.5 magnitude struck within one minute on June 24, damaging tens of thousands of buildings across northern Venezuela and killing more than 2,200 people while injuring over 11,000.
- Shielded in a security cabin that held ground beneath about 30 feet of rubble, Gil Flores survived through a vital pocket of air; rescue crews used a telescopic camera and passed water and nutrients through a narrow shaft during the final three days.
- His wife, Usbimar Gonzalez, told CNN she endured "days of great sorrow" before learning he was alive, saying "once I found out that he was alive I saw a ray of sunshine," while Gil Flores had asked rescuers not to inform her of his survival.
- Nearly 2,300 confirmed dead and tens of thousands still missing, Gil Flores' eight-day survival far exceeded the typical three-day "golden window" when chances of finding earthquake survivors without water diminish, as operations continue across Venezuela.
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384 Articles
After 8 days buried under earthquake rubble, Hernán Alberto Gil Flores is rescued in Venezuelan ‘miracle’
Friends, family members, and a coalition of rescue workers from seven countries, including El Salvador, Chile, and the United States, celebrated Thursday after a man who was trapped under the rubble of a nine-story shopping mall following twin 7.2- and 7.5-magnitude earthquakes in Venezuela was rescued alive.
On Thursday, security guard Hernán Gil was rescued from the rubble in Venezuela. At the time, he had been buried under seven collapsed floors for eight days.
Buried Hand Moves — Global Team Stunned
For eight days, a former mall security guard lay trapped under seven levels of concrete in Venezuela while a patchwork of foreign rescuers did what his own government could not: keep him alive, talk to him, and finally pull him out. Story Snapshot A 43-year-old guard, Hernán Alberto Gil Flores, survived eight days buried under...
Caracas., Eight days have passed since the earthquakes in Venezuela. Some international teams have already withdrawn, such as the Brigadiers from Spain, Italy and Switzerland. However, delegations from many countries remain on the ground in search of survivors. From Mexico, another body of rescuers arrived yesterday, while a miraculous rescue filled the country with hopes.
A man named Hernán Gil was taken out of 140 tons of debris, and he was surprisingly spared serious injuries.
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