After the mayor of Cali reported that Diana Marcela Troncoso Escobar was still alive under the rubble of a building, rescue teams managed to pull her out alive at noon on August 11, following the 7.4 magnitude earthquake that shook Colombia on the morning of August 10.
Upon confirming the operation, the president announced: “DIANA HAS BEEN RESCUED! After hours of tireless work, our relief agencies managed to rescue Diana from the rubble. She is now receiving priority medical attention. We continue without rest, working for our people”
The Mayor’s Office of Cali confirmed that after 16 hours of rescue efforts, a 32-year-old woman was pulled from the rubble of a ruined building in Cali following the 7.4 magnitude earthquake that struck Colombia on August 10.
The rescue of doctor Diana Marcela Troncoso Escobar alive exposed two central facts of the emergency in Cali following the 7.4 magnitude earthquake: rescuers maintained contact with her for hours under the rubble of the Torres del Limonar building and, with her extraction, the number of survivors recovered reached seven.
The information was reported by sources from the operation and by the building’s administrator in statements to Blu Radio, where it was specified that the woman, aged 32 or 33 according to the initial report, was alone in the apartment when the structure collapsed. Her family had left early and returned when the building had already come down.
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The most precise operational data was provided by Corporal Sebastián Sánchez, who led the rescue maneuver: the teams managed to access her from 9:00 p.m. the previous day and worked for 16 hours together with the Bogotá Fire Department. The entry was made from the fifth to the second level of the structure, which was the point where she was trapped.
After the mayor of Cali reported that Diana Marcela Troncoso Escobar was still alive under the rubble of a building, rescue teams managed to pull her out alive at noon on August 11, following the 7.4 magnitude earthquake that shook Colombia on the morning of August 10 – credit Reuters
Sánchez said that the doctor never lost consciousness during that period. That detail, added to the fact that she had one hand free to receive water and hydration, was part of the conditions that allowed her to be sustained until her transfer to a medical center.
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The corporal explained that the rescue required a vertical opening within the collapsed structure. “We managed to access her starting yesterday at nine at night. We have been working since yesterday until this hour, an operational period of 16 hours in conjunction with the Bogota Fire Department,” he pointed out. He added that the work focused on a downward trajectory inside the building. “We worked on vertical access from the fifth level of the structure down to the second level, which was where she was,” he stated.
The sequence of contact with the victim marked another relevant point in the account. “We always had contact first verbally, after accessing, and we were able to have physical contact. We were always active with her. She was never unconscious, she was always conscious, active, and thanks to that we were able to rescue her”.
He indicated that, at the time of being extracted, her general condition was favorable given the severity of the scene. “She is doing very well. At this moment she is already being transported to a medical center.”
According to the journalist’s report on the broadcast, the collapse of the Torres del Limonar building occurred after the earthquake recorded on Monday at 07:34, with its epicenter in San José del Palmar.
The building administrator identified the rescued woman as Diana Marcela Troncoso and described her as a doctor. She confirmed that, at the time of the collapse, she was alone in her apartment. Regarding her physical condition, she noted that she had a leg injury. “She has a problem, it seems, with one of her legs, trapped by a wall or a partition,” she said, although she added that, “all things considered,” she was fine.
The same source specified that with Troncoso there were already seven people rescued alive, including the three-month-old baby, Salomón Gómez.
The operation revealed that the fire crews maintained contact with Troncoso throughout the maneuver and that another person was still located inside the structure, which kept the search front open. That information appeared in another response from Sánchez regarding the state of the rest of the building. “At the moment we have confirmed another person that Bogotá Firefighters are working on rescuing,” he reported.
The administrator had also anticipated that possibility when referring to a minor who had not yet been extracted. “The girl is in the process of being rescued, but she has not come out yet. They are possibly the next ones because they were very close together,” she declared.
