Venezuela quake rescuers believe boy is alive under rubble after 16 days

On day nine came the words that Francisco Bastardo had dreaded since the earthquakes brought down the home of his 9-year-old son, Fabio.

No signs of life.

For hours, rescue workers from Portugal and Spain had run sonar and ground-penetrating radar tests on the piled ruins of the 13-storey apartment building where the boy lived with his mother.

Nothing.

Fabio, whom rescuers believed had survived the twin earthquakes that shook this South American country last month, appeared finally to have succumbed.

But on day 11 came a Venezuelan rescue team and a different conclusion. Inside what was left of the sixth-floor apartment, now under rubble, rescuers believed someone was responding to their questions with knocks and scratches.

The result, supported by subsequent tests, have given this grieving nation an almost absurd hope.

“There are signs that tell us the little boy could still be alive,” Miguel García, commander of the Mexican urban search-and-rescue team Topos Aztecas, told The Washington Post on Thursday.

If there has been one emotion running through the rescue efforts in this devastated coastal city - other than unspeakable grief - it is uncertainty.

The 7.2- and 7.5-magnitude quakes, which struck 39 seconds apart on June 24, destroyed hundreds of buildings, killed more than 4,100 people and left unknown thousands still missing. Venezuela has since received rescue teams from around the world, but their interactions have often been complicated by confusion. The international volunteers rarely speak the same language. Detection methods differ. Each test seems to bring a different answer.

At times, Venezuelans say, international rescuers have discovered survivors, but have decided against saving them to avoid putting their own teams at risk.

“They are pragmatic,” said Luis Moreno, a member of the Venezuelan National Guard who has been leading volunteers at Fabio’s building. “If they find someone alive but they are hard to reach, or the structure is too dangerous to enter, they leave.

“Venezuelans stick around and keep digging for their people.”

Francisco Bastardo believes his son his still alive. Photo / Andrea Hernández Briceño / Washington Post

The differences between detection methods have at times raised unrealistic, ultimately painful hopes. One boy, Lucas Gámez, 8, was believed for more than a week to still be alive. On Wednesday, rescuers found his body.

Other times, people have been assumed dead - then pulled from the rubble by family, alive.

That‘s the outcome for which people across Venezuela are hoping and praying for Fabio - a bespectacled boy with a love for astronomy. The 24-hour rescue effort, one of the last in the country more than two weeks after the quakes, has gone viral.

“I feel it,” Bastardo said Thursday evening. “More and more I feel that I’m close, and I think we’re going to get there.”

The 42-year-old merchant mariner was on the other side of the world - near the Strait of Hormuz, worried about his own safety - when he learned of the quakes and La Guaira’s destruction.

At first, he thought the news was fake. Then he saw video on social media: the building where his son lived with his ex-wife, crumpled.

“I started calling my family, and calling them and calling them - and nothing, nothing, nothing.”

Fabio Bastardo’s grandmother Rebeca prays for him to be found. Photo / Andrea Hernández Briceño / Washington Post

He raced home. Three days after the disaster, the Tahiti building was nothing but a mound of shattered glass, twisted steel and concrete rubble.

It seemed impossible that anyone could be alive underneath. But in the quiet of the night, after rescue teams across the city had withdrawn, he heard Fabio’s voice.

He thought it might simply be the desperate imaginings of a grieving father. But others said they heard it, too.

“I said, ‘Son, we’re here to rescue you! Stay calm!’” Bastardo said. “And I heard him crying with a groan.”

The difference between finding a survivor and rescuing them, however, quickly became clear. Across the city, the scene has played on repeat: A person is discovered alive, but rescue teams cannot reach them, often for want of the right equipment, and signs of life eventually fade.

But rescuers concluded Fabio was trapped inside an air pocket, a small confine within a collapsed building with enough oxygen to sustain life. They believe his mother, Kiriaki Navarro, is dead.

They estimated that no more than 20 feet stood between them and the boy. But without heavy equipment - cranes or backhoes - the only way to break through would be by hand.

Using hammers, pickaxes and shovels, rescuers and other volunteers dug for days. They reached the rubble of what had been the sixth floor. Then, deeper, Fabio’s apartment.

On July 3, Day nine, Portuguese and Spanish rescue teams reached a grim determination: It was too late. There were no more signs of life.

Bastardo, in disbelief, stayed at the site, if for no other reason than to compel others to help retrieve his son’s body.

That night, when all was quiet, he again heard it: Fabio. Every time Bastardo yelled out, a scratching knock replied. “I heard him,” he said.

The Topos Azteca, the Mexican rescue team, arrived Wednesday morning. They ran a “sonic test,” García said, that confirmed it: There were still signs of life. Someone was knocking from inside the rubble.

“We’ve been interacting with him,” García said. “We know these are conscious responses.”

Rescuers reached the kitchen: nothing. They’ve scoured what’s left of Fabio’s bedroom: nothing. But they have not yet reached his mother’s room. It remains barricaded behind rubble.

A fireman asks for silence during the search. Photo / Andrea Hernández Briceño / Washington Post

Brazilian rescuers called for a camera. A volunteer worked a small, telescopic device through a crevice. Inside, they said, they saw a face in the darkness - and blinking eyes.

Fabio?

No one was sure.

Friday was Day 16. Heavy rains overnight had collapsed the tunnels the rescuers had forged to Fabio’s apartment.

Topos Azteca performed a thermal test. There was still life.

They began the dig all over again.