Trapped 32 Hours Under Quake Rubble, Venezuelan Girl Survived on Ketchup and Cheese

When the ground began to shake in Venezuela on 24 June, Karina Blanco was moments away from teaching a spinning class. As the tremors grew stronger, she grabbed her bag and fled outdoors with everyone around her.

Her thoughts immediately turned to her only child. "When I realised the magnitude of it, I started screaming 'my daughter, my daughter'. I sat in my car and drove as fast as I could," she recalled.

Her 12-year-old daughter, Fabiana, was home alone when two powerful earthquakes struck within seconds of each other. The second was one of the strongest tremors to hit the country in a century, measured at magnitude 7.5.

A Building Reduced to Rubble

Arriving at her 10-storey building in Caraballeda, in northern La Guaira state, Karina struggled to comprehend the scene. "I could see one building, then a gap where my building stood, and then another building," she said.

Inside their first-floor flat, Fabiana had run from a bedroom into the kitchen and was clinging to the counter when the walls collapsed around her, throwing her to the ground.

"I saw things shaking, falling, breaking, and then the walls cracked," Fabiana said. "At that moment, I thought, 'I'm going to die. I won't survive this. No-one is going to rescue me.'"

Outside, Karina spotted half of her daughter's bed protruding from the debris. "I was running from one end of the complex to the other screaming 'She's dead. My daughter is dead'. I didn't know what to do," she said.

Calm in the Darkness

Beneath the collapsed structure, Fabiana lay face up, hemmed in by rubble on all sides, the ceiling nearly touching her face. Despite her usual anxiety, she felt an unexpected calm settle over her.

"I'm someone who gets very anxious and claustrophobic. But I don't know why, a strange calm came over me. Maybe my mind was in shock," she said.

A nurse who cared for the upstairs neighbours began calling out from the wreckage, and Fabiana answered. The nurse urged her to stay calm. About six hours after the quake, rescuers pulled the nurse out and she told them a girl named Fabiana was still alive inside.

For Karina, it was a moment of transformation. "I had surrendered to God asking for strength to begin a new life without Fabiana. And then someone told me, 'Your daughter is alive'," she said. She rushed back, screaming into gaps in the debris.

Unable to hear anything through the rubble, Fabiana held on to hope. When one of her legs became painfully trapped, she cleared away debris to straighten it, picking up cuts and scrapes in the process. In doing so, she made a crucial discovery.

"I found a bottle of ketchup and some grated cheese. That's what kept me conscious," she said.

Hope and Despair

The rescue effort was a series of near misses. At dawn, Venezuelan firefighters entered the rubble and called out for Fabiana but heard no reply, and eventually left. "I had a sinking thought that maybe she had suffocated to death or had suffered a heart attack," Karina said.

Then a volunteer named Viktor approached. Climbing over the debris, he called out and this time Fabiana heard him and answered. "I turned to everyone and screamed, 'my daughter is alive'," Karina said. People arrived with tools, but firefighters again concluded it was impossible to break through.

Deep in the rubble, Fabiana found her phone. With mobile networks down, she recorded a video hoping to send it later. "There was a tremor and a lot of rubble has fallen. There is no light. There is no-one to rescue us. I am alone. Many neighbours are trapped in the rubble. We need your help," she said in the recording.

Viktor kept returning to reassure her. When a rescue group was summoned from Caracas, darkness had fallen. Karina scrambled for torches, and seven motorcycles and two cars aimed their headlights at the collapsed building.

Pulled Free After 32 Hours

Rescuers chiselled away until they opened a hole large enough to see Fabiana. The image of her smiling face peering through the gap has since gone viral in Venezuela.

"After so many hours of being shut in, I was filled with joy when I saw them. I realised I was going to be rescued," she said.

At around 02:00 local time on Friday, 32 hours after the earthquakes struck, rescuers dug a tunnel wide enough to pull her out. She walked free with their support and collapsed into her mother's arms.

The toll on their community was devastating. Of the nearly 50 people who lived in the building, Karina said, only three were rescued alive. As of Sunday, 3,342 people were confirmed dead, with tens of thousands still missing.

Fabiana escaped with a fractured left foot and a few scrapes and bruises. She is now staying with her grandmother, though she initially feared lying on her back, which brought back memories of the rubble.

"There is a great sadness outside of this house," Karina said. "It will take us a while to recover. But we will move on. What more can a mother want? My daughter is alive." Share this remarkable story of survival and resilience with those who need a reminder of hope.

Source: BBC News – World