{"id":670093,"date":"2026-07-02T16:32:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T16:32:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/670093\/"},"modified":"2026-07-02T16:32:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T16:32:12","slug":"venezuelan-man-pulled-alive-from-collapsed-basement-eight-days-after-earthquakes-venezuela","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/670093\/","title":{"rendered":"Venezuelan man pulled alive from collapsed basement eight days after earthquakes | Venezuela"},"content":{"rendered":"

A 43-year-old security guard who survived last week\u2019s devastating earthquakes in Venezuela<\/a> thanks to a pocket of air in his workstation cabin has been pulled from the collapsed basement of a shopping centre amid huge cheers from international rescue teams.<\/p>\n

Hern\u00e1n Alberto Gil Flores had been trapped for eight days under the rubble of the Galer\u00edas Playa Grande in the hard-hit coastal port city of La Guaira since the back-to-back quakes struck.<\/p>\n

The 7.2- and 7.5-magnitude earthquakes killed almost 2,200 people, injured more than 11,000 others and left tens of thousands missing.<\/p>\n

Gil Flores, who worked as a nightshift security guard at the shopping centre, was inside his small security cabin when the first violent tremor struck. While the surrounding concrete structure collapsed around him, his cabin shielded him from crushing debris and created a vital pocket of air.<\/p>\n

A specialised team from the Costa Rican Red Cross (CRRC) first detected signs of life and established contact with him on Sunday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we found him, he asked us not to tell his wife that he was alive, just in case he wouldn\u2019t make it,\u201d Minyar Collado, a member of the CRRC team told the Associated Press.<\/p>\n

Teams from across the world cheer as rescuers carry Gil Flores on a stretcher through throngs of people into a Red Cross ambulance. Photograph: Fernando Vergara\/AP<\/p>\n

But, four days later on Thursday, teams carrying flags from across the world cheered as rescuers carried Gil Flores on a stretcher covered in an orange tarp through throngs of people into a Red Cross ambulance. A group of men in red CRRC uniforms embraced and laughed in relief.<\/p>\n

Gil Flores\u2019s wife, Gusbimar Gonz\u00e1lez, said her despair had given way to hope when she heard he was still alive. \u201cI saw a ray of light in the darkness,\u201d Gonz\u00e1lez said.<\/p>\n

The operation was coordinated by an urban search and rescue team of Chilean firefighters, who worked around the clock with specialist teams from the US, Portugal and Mexico, among others.<\/p>\n

Rescuers had to navigate highly unstable structural conditions, torrential rain and persistent aftershocks to tunnel down to the Gil Flores. They used a telescopic camera to maintain constant contact with him, passing water and liquid nutrients through a narrow shaft to keep him hydrated during the final three days of the extraction.<\/p>\n

Mar\u00eda Paz Campos, a veteran firefighter from Chile, talked the security guard through the entire operation, and kept him calm during the final hours of the rescue on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Rescue workers with the dog that helped find Hern\u00e1n Alberto Gil Flores. Photograph: Federico Parra\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

In a video published by the Chilean firefighters in the hours before the rescue, Gil Flores had been seen drawing, apparently to pass the time. Campos then gently told him to look at the camera and to wear protective goggles.<\/p>\n

\u201cI need you to keep the goggles on to stop the small particles that are falling from getting into your eyes,\u201d she told him.<\/p>\n

While there have been a few astounding rescues \u2013 including those of Gil Flores and a three-year boy who was pulled from the rubble on Tuesday<\/a> \u2013 hopes of finding many more survivors are dwindling fast.<\/p>\n

Looper graphic<\/a><\/p>\n

The majority of collapsed buildings in La Guaira, just north of Caracas, have been marked with the letter D for \u201cdeceased\u201d \u2013 a notice that they had been searched with no signs of life found.<\/p>\n

The focus is now shifting to survival for those who escaped the quakes. Many are homeless and food and water are becoming scarce.<\/p>\n

There have also been widespread reports of theft, which have prompted public anger over the Venezuelan authorities\u2019 response to one of the worst earthquake disasters in Latin American history. On Wednesday, four police officers were arrested after being caught by residents stealing valuables from the rubble<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The focus is now shifting to survival for those who escaped the quakes. Many are homeless and food and water are becoming scarce. Photograph: Miguel Guti\u00e9rrez\/EPA<\/p>\n

Queues for aid are growing longer by the day, with many people surviving on the goodwill of volunteers and donations from fellow citizens.<\/p>\n

\u201cHere, we were receiving nothing until last night when they started bringing water,\u201d said Fatima Berroteran, 56, who has been sleeping with her family in a car park since their home in a highrise complex in La Guaira suffered severe damage.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, the World Food Programme appealed for $50m (\u00a337.4m), saying that about 500,000 people in Venezuela would need to be fed for three months.<\/p>\n

Fears of disease are also rising, with the World Health Organization expressing concern over the potential for disease outbreaks as Venezuela\u2019s stressed and damaged health facilities struggle to cope with the aftermath of the quakes.<\/p>\n

Satellite data suggests that more than 58,000 buildings in Venezuela may have been damaged or destroyed in the quakes. Photograph: Jes\u00fas Vargas\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Preliminary analysis of satellite data suggests more than 58,000 buildings may have been damaged or destroyed<\/a> in the two quakes, dwarfing official estimates. On Monday, Jorge Rodr\u00edguez, the president of the national assembly, said 855 buildings had been damaged, including 189 \u201ctotal collapses\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Associated Press and Agence France-Presse contributed reporting<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 43-year-old security guard who survived last week\u2019s devastating earthquakes in Venezuela thanks to a pocket of air…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":670094,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-670093","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670093","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=670093"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/670093\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/670094"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=670093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=670093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=670093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}