Chile Rescue

Chile Rescue

After 10 weeks stuck underground Chile's 33 trapped miners are now celebrating.

When the mine collapsed most people were afraid the miners would already be dead.

But Kirsty explains how the biggest mine rescue ever ended up a huge success.

KIRSTY BENNETT, REPORTER: This is the moment the world was waiting to see. Florencio Avalos, the first miner to be winched to the surface and to his family. One by one the miners were rescued. For some, sixty nine days of high humidity and darkness didn't drain their spirits! It was a rescue that brought the entire country to its feet and put these men into the record books. With most of the miners fit and well, let's track back to how they got stuck down there in the first place.

The San Jose mine is near the town of Copiapo in Chile and produces gold and copper. On August the 5th, the roof of an access tunnel collapsed and trapped the men about 700 metres underground. It wasn't until a note surfaced 17 days later that everyone knew they were all alive. So far they had survived on just two days worth of food rations. Three holes were drilled to give them fresh air and to send down food, water and medicine. Then an extremely difficult rescue plan got underway. They had to get the miners out quickly and carefully.

To get the men, the Chilean Government got lots of technical help from the country's Navy and organisations like NASA. A 600 metre long tunnel was drilled down close to the emergency shelter where they were staying but the miners couldn't simply climb through, they had to send down this capsule which is kind of like a one person elevator.

KIRSTY: The capsule was about this big. I'm a bit smaller than those guys so try to imagine a full grown man sitting in one of these. They wore overalls and had to put on sunglasses to protect their eyes from the light. They had to lay like this for about fifteen minutes, with only a small light to keep them company.

A mine rescue expert and a paramedic were lowered in first to suss out the miners' health and to help in the operation. The miners were put in order with the healthiest ones to go up first. After 22 hours the last miner reached the surface where everyone joined together to sing the national anthem.

There were around 2000 media there from all over the world and the frenzy isn't likely to go away just yet. The miners will probably be offered television interviews, and movie and book deals. But the worry comes after the media attention dies down and the excitement of being rescued fades. Some experts reckon that the miners could experience psychological problems because they spent so much time trapped in the mine. So for the next six months at least, the Chilean government has offered counselling.

The government has been given the thumbs up for how it handled the rescue. It cooperated with other organisations and countries to bring the men to safety, despite all the risks. The next step the government will take is to look over mining safety. It's all to make sure that the lid to this rescue tunnel, won't have to open again.

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