L.A. firefighters help unearth quake survivor

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.

- MERY MOGOLLÓN AND PATRICK J. MCDONNELL.

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 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." The cinematic denoument revived some measure of hope in a reeling nation, where the official casualty count announced Friday climbed to 2,645 dead and 12,666 injured, with thousands remaining missing.

"I never lost hope," said Franyimar González, 32, Gil's wife, who held daily vigil outside the entrance of the parking structure. "I thank God that my husband was spared amid this great tragedy." The operation was a testament to the growing effectiveness of a multinational collection of urban searchand-rescue squads-known as USAR that have become ubiquitous life-savers at epicenters of calamity across the globe.