Wednesday, October 13, 2010

33 Miners Lost For 17 Days Then Found - 70 Days To Be Recovered Alive From Chilean 'Hell Hole'

It's a workingman I am and I've been down underground
And I swear by God if I ever see the sun
Or for any length of time, I can hold it in my mind
I never again will go down underground




The 33 miners trapped deep underground for more than two months in northern Chile have all now been rescued.

Chile let out an almighty roar on Wednesday when the first miner reached the surface after 69 days. The Catholic nation tolled the church bells to signal this momentous occasion. Families and friends have been camping out in 'Camp Hope' for weeks, waiting for news about their loved ones. Finally, the waiting was over. Cheers resounded around the world as the first rescued miner, Florencio Avalos, reached the surface after being winched up a shaft 624m (2,074ft) long. What a fearful and interminable journey that must have been. All hopes were pinned on the fete of engineering and his bravery to lead to way.

The 33 men were trapped by a rock fall at the mine near Copiapo, about 725km (450 miles) north of Santiago, on 5th August 2010. Rescuers had almost given up the search when they located them 17 days later. Contact was made on 22nd August when a rescue team’s drill probe broke through the miner’s sheltered area, about 700m below the surface. The men attached a note saying: “All 33 of us are well inside the shelter.” Chile was euphoric - but then the planning had to start.

Since then, people around the world have been joining forces in thoughts and prayers, to watch and pray as history was in the making. Our forum members were no exception. The plan to rescue the miners was so audacious that it seemed impossibly ambitious. This has truly been one of the biggest rescue efforts in mining history, a brilliant piece of engineering teamwork in order to save lives

On Wednesday, we joined hands across cyberspace - each watching the news unfold in their own country. We celebrated but shared fears in equal proportions across the internet. Our members share concerns about missing children every day of every week, and we do our utmost to help. On this occasion, we recognised the value of fathers, husbands, brothers and sons who had been missing but had been found - found but not yet rescued. Those of us who could pray prayed hard; those who were not comfortable with prayers held the miners, their families and the engineers in their thoughts.

The miners themselves, always had faith that somehow they were going to be out of there - that somehow they were going to be rescued. We had to hold the same faith. It was almost our duty to read the news and watch the live-streams from the major news agencies. If we didn’t watch or read then we felt we might have let them down. We had to keep them close to us in our thoughts.

So, on Wednesday, we found ourselves joining across cyber space: from the UK to Ireland; from Germany to the USA. We also joined in the chant “Chi-chi-chi-le-le-le, los mineros de Chile”” whenever a miner reached the surface. We shed tears as the families embraced. We were moved by the stories associated with each individual:

MARIO GOMEZ, 63 - the oldest miner who has worked in the mines since the age of 12 years was thinking about retiring in November.

JIMMY SANCHEZ, 19 - the youngest miner who has only 5 months mining experience.

VICTOR ZAMORA, 33 - only went into the mine on the day of the accident to repair a vehicle. He has already survived one natural disaster - the earthquake which hit Talcahuano in February and destroyed his original workplace.

ARIEL TACONA, 29 - became a father on the 40th day of being trapped. His wife Elizabeth Segovia gave birth to a girl on 14th September. He asked her to name their daughter Esperanza which is Spanish for hope.

ESTEBAN ROJAS - told his girlfriend of 25 years: “When I get out of here we’ll buy you a wedding dress and get married in church.”

The last time our forum members joined together in real-time over a recovery story which had grabbed our hearts was when Shannon Matthews was found. We did a cyber conga around the forum. One of our forum members was due to do her third day of volunteer ‘search and rescue’ in Yorkshire on the Saturday but, gladly, she was not needed.

So, on Wednesday, we partied all night again! They are different scenarios - but our joy was the same. Whether it is one child who is found safe or 33 men, the joy is euphoric.

And what can be said about those 6 rescue workers who placed their lives on the line to bring out the trapped miners? They are ‘super-human’; ‘earth angels’ or really special human beings. They went down into the hell-hole to give the miners a chance to make the claustrophobic journey back to the surface and to their families. What a selfless act.

Who could have failed to shed a tear when Luis Ursula (shift foreman, 54 years) approached the Chilean President and said, “I hand over my shift to you”? Sebastian Pinera, also with great emotion, accepted the gesture and hugged the man who had led a great team. President Pinera spoke, afterwards, about the value of commitment, teamwork, trust and faith. None of these values is more important than the other.

Our forum takes a new lesson from this formidable experience. We have to keep working on the cases of the missing; we have to do whatever we can - and at all costs, we have to have faith and hope.

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