Venezuelan security guard pulled alive from building basement 8 days after twin quakes
Rescuers from seven countries used water, oxygen and structural supports to free Hernán Alberto Gil Flores after 70 hours of work, officials said.
- 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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392 Articles
Hernán Gil was buried under rubble for over a week after the earthquake in Venezuela. Now he has reported his rescue. Meanwhile, the death toll has risen to over 3,300, and tens of thousands are considered missing. Source link: https://www.spiegel.de/panorama/erdbeben-in-venezuela-gerettet-nach-acht-tagen-unter-truemmern-ich-wurde-wiedergeboren-a-20768c12-00aa-4dee-8b3d-41f9380e9834#ref=rss Author: Publish date: 2026-07-06 05:00:00 Copyright for…
Radio France Internationale
Venezuela quake survivor 'reborn' after eight days in rubble
The first tremor was short, Gil recounted in an interview with AFP from the hospital room where he was recovering after being rescued from the depths of a collapsed building. Gil became a symbol of hope for Venezuela after he survived eight days of being buried alive by the double earthquake that devastated the north of the Caribbean country, leaving nearly 3,000 dead. "The second one was incredibly strong," said the 43-year-old, who remembers f…
“I Was Born Again”: the Story of the Vigilante Who Survived Eight Days Under a Building in Venezuela
Hernán Gil worked in his turn as a guard in the basement of a building in Venezuela on the afternoon of June 24 when he felt the shaking of the earth.
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...
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