L.A. firefighters help rescue Venezuela quake victim buried for 8 days

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Set us as preferred LA GUAIRA, Venezuela — Scores of emergency responders gathered outside the collapsed shopping center, eager for a respite from the days of devastation and carnage they had witnessed in quake-ravaged Venezuela.Finally, the long-anticipated moment arrived: Firefighters wheeled out a gurney carrying Hernán Alberto Gil Flores — a security guard who survived for more than a week trapped under a mountain of rubble.Spontaneous applause erupted — and even some tears were shed — at the battered parking structure where Gil had been entombed since the two temblors struck within seconds of each other on June 24.And among those present were members of the Los Angeles County Fire Department.“We are just so proud to have been part of this,” Capt.Adam Bradley said after Thursday’s dramatic events.

“So happy to think that the contributions that we and others made will help this man go back to his family and, hopefully, live a wonderful life.”The against-all-odds survival narrative stunned even veteran first responders.“There aren’t many successful cases of people being rescued alive after seven days trapped in a building,” Mario Armenteras, an emergency worker from Chile, told reporters.“It’s quite historic for us.

And it’s a rescue that will be remembered for a long time by all the teams here working together here from all countries from throughout the world.” World & Nation After deadly twin quakes in Venezuela, survivor Rubén Darío Sillie used social media to beg for help amid a severely delayed and criticized government response.The cinematic denoument revived some measure of hope in a reeling nation, where the official casualty count announced Saturday climbed to 2,954 dead and 16,592 injured, with thousands remaining missing.“I never lost hope,” said Franyimar González,...