Víctor Torres, bombero e ingeniero Usach, recordó labores de rescate tras terremoto en Venezuela

The rescue of Hernán Gil became one of the symbols of the successful search and rescue efforts following the double earthquake that struck Venezuela on June 24th. After more than 70 hours of uninterrupted work, humanitarian teams—including the USAR Group of the Chilean Fire Department—managed to free this security guard, who had been trapped for eight days inside a guardhouse located in the basement of a collapsed building in La Guaira. In a conversation with #SinPretexto, Víctor Torres Fuentes, Hazmat specialist with the USAR Group of the Chilean Fire Department and a mining engineer from the University of Santiago (Usach), recalled this and other episodes of the work carried out in Venezuela. “This is not the result of chance; the accumulated experience of the Chilean Fire Department allows us to have these capabilities, which enable us to be interoperable with the Armed Forces. In La Guaira, we were able to operate within the context of all the humanitarian aid,” he noted. He added that the first task undertaken in La Guaira was to assess the situation and the scene in order to classify buildings where there was a greater likelihood of finding survivors. This technical work was carried out in parallel with the human tragedy. “That initial interaction is extremely difficult because people are showing you their immediate pain, but you also have a much larger task: coordinating the rescue efforts. And that's where the first clash with reality occurs. This is achieved through collaborative work with the United Nations; you have to have a common language and shared plans,” he added. Regarding the rescue of Hernán Gil, the specialist pointed out that it was a highly complex case where the person was trapped in a niche-like structure, supported by a beam, holding up tons of rubble from a shopping center. “Through the United Nations coordination unit, Chile was assigned to this site, which was one of the major challenges of the earthquake. (…) That's where our search began, using sonar, and the mining work commenced, allowing us to probe and reach this person. Complex problems are solved with simple solutions: it involved developing a shaft, a mining duct, as a rescue tunnel, overcoming various obstacles and reinforcing the space. That's how we reached him,” he stated. Torres Fuentes emphasized that experience and academic training are fundamental in this complex work. In that regard, he valued his time studying Mining Engineering at the University of Santiago. “Academia is essential for those who want to develop rescue operations; without the ability to analyze data and understand earth sciences, it would be very difficult. My time at university gave me the tools to understand mining in its purest form. The professors, when they taught you geology or structural mining, are the foundation of those who develop safety in Chilean mining,” he concluded.