Chilean miner rescue a success
The world rejoiced yesterday as the last of the trapped Chilean miners reached the surface safely. Camp Hope, where the families of the 33 trapped men had been keeping vigil for the last 70 days, erupted in song, dance and colour as the last man was winched to safety.
Tears flowed as freely as the Champagne as Luis Urzua, the miners’ foreman, was greeted by his joyful friends and family a moved president Sebastian Pinera. As the miners’ supervisor, Mr Urzua is believed to have helped the men stay alive in their first 17 days of their entrapment before rescue teams could reach them.
The story of the trapped miners attracted media attention from around the globe after the tunnel they were working in caved in on August 5. After weeks of drilling through the solid rock, the rescue team were finally able to reach the men at around midnight on Tuesday, local time.
One-by-one the 33 men were winched to the surface and greeted with cheers, confetti and Champagne. Mr Urzua volunteered to stay behind until he knew all his men had reached the surface safely.
The whole team has been taken to hospital and all are said to be experiencing serious dental decay. One man also has a mild case of pneumonia and others are suffering from eye damage. According to Jaime Manalich, however, the country’s health minister, all the men are in a better condition than was originally expected.