Chilean Firefighter Helps Save Man Trapped 8 Days

When Víctor Torres squeezed through a rescue tunnel and saw Hernán Gil's face emerge from the rubble, eight agonizing days had passed since two massive earthquakes buried the Venezuelan security guard alive. "Come on, damn it! It's only your mind," Torres kept saying, willing the trapped man to hold on just a little longer.

The 7.2 and 7.5 magnitude earthquakes struck Venezuela on June 24, killing over 3,500 people and leaving tens of thousands homeless. Chilean firefighters arrived the next day, joining rescue teams from seven other countries in La Guaira, the disaster's hardest-hit area.

Torres, a 40-year-old mining engineer with 25 years of firefighting experience, almost didn't reach Gil at all. Residents near the Galerías de Playa Grande shopping center insisted someone was still alive inside, and radar equipment confirmed a heartbeat beneath 140 tons of concrete and steel.

The first rescue tunnel nearly killed Torres himself. As the team dug toward Gil, following the sound of his voice in the darkness, two minor collapses partially buried the rescuer. The unstable structure forced them to abandon that route and start over.

Torres's small stature and mining background became crucial advantages. He crawled through a second tunnel built with American teams, reaching Gil from above his head. "We had to be extremely adaptable," he says, comparing the operation to Chile's famous 2010 rescue of 33 trapped miners.

The Ripple Effect

This wasn't Torres's first earthquake rescue. He's responded to disasters in Peru, Haiti, Ecuador, and Chile's own devastating 2010 earthquake. But this mission carried special meaning because of how it brought the Americas together.

Teams from Chile, the United States, Spain, Venezuela, Portugal, Mexico, Costa Rica, and El Salvador worked side by side. Torres credits Chile's leadership role to decades of experience, but he's quick to redirect praise. "The real heroes were the Venezuelans, helping their own people in the first hours after the earthquakes," he says.

The Venezuelan government awarded the rescue teams its "Hero of Venezuela" medal. Chilean President José Antonio Kast formally received the honor Monday at La Moneda Palace. But Torres took a taxi straight from the ceremony back to his fire station in Santiago's San Miguel district.

He knows there's nothing to celebrate when thousands have died. Yet he hopes Gil's survival sends a powerful message to Venezuela: "Just as Hernán found the strength to hold on, they too will overcome this crisis."