Eight Days After Venezuela Earthquake, Brazilian Team Detects Vital Signs and Races to Rescue Two People Trapped Under Rubble
Key takeaways
- Vital-sign detection equipment also confirmed the possibility that survivors remain trapped.
- Firefighters and Civil Defense personnel have been working alongside rescuers from Venezuela and El Salvador since 8 a.m. on Wednesday (July 1), periodically halting excavation to verify the vital signs.
- In Playa Grande, another operation successfully rescued security guard Hernán Gil, 43, who had been trapped for eight days beneath the rubble of the guard booth where he worked.
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Vital-sign detection equipment also confirmed the possibility that survivors remain trapped.
According to a member of the Brazilian government accompanying the mission, the two victims are believed to be trapped in the building's garage, inside a void created between parked vehicles and the concrete slab of the collapsed structure. Firefighters and Civil Defense personnel have been working alongside rescuers from Venezuela and El Salvador since 8 a.m. on Wednesday (July 1), periodically halting excavation to verify the vital signs. Rescue teams have already reached one of the buried vehicles but must remove a structural obstacle, a process expected to take three to four hours.
In Playa Grande, another operation successfully rescued security guard Hernán Gil, 43, who had been trapped for eight days beneath the rubble of the guard booth where he worked. During that time, he received water and air through tubes and remained in contact with rescuers.