The foreman who held the group together when they were feared lost was the
last man out.
Luis Alberto Urzua was hoisted to safety in a joyous climax to a flawless rescue that captivated the world
Luis Alberto Urzua was hoisted to safety in a joyous climax to a flawless rescue that captivated the world
"The 70 days that we fought so hard were not in vain. We had strength, we had spirit, we wanted to fight, we wanted to fight for our families, and that was the greatest thing."
The president told him: "You are not the same and the country is not the same after this. You were an inspiration. Go hug your wife and your daughter."
Miner after miner climbed into a cramped cage deep beneath the Chilean earth, was hoisted through 2,000 feet of rock and saw precious sunlight after the longest underground entrapment in history.
By early today, all of the 33 miners, including the weakest and sickest, had been pulled to freedom.
After 69 days underground, including two weeks during which they were feared dead, the men emerged to the cheers of exuberant Chileans and before the eyes of a transfixed world.
The operation picked up speed as the day went on, but each miner was greeted with the same boisterous applause from rescuers.
"Welcome to life," President Sebastian Pinera told Victor Segvia, the 15th miner out. On a day of superlatives, it seemed no overstatement.
They rejoined a world intensely curious about their ordeal and certain to offer fame and jobs. Previously unimaginable riches awaited men who had risked their lives going into the unstable gold and copper mine for just over £1,000 a month.
The miners made the smooth ascent inside a capsule called Phoenix - 13ft tall, barely wider than their shoulders and painted in the white, blue and red of the Chilean flag. It had a door that stuck occasionally, and its wheels needed lubricating at least once, but it worked exactly as planned.
Beginning in the early hours of yesterday, British time, and sometimes as quickly as every 25 minutes, the pod was lowered the nearly half a mile to where 700,000 tons of rock collapsed August 5 and entombed the men.
Then, after a quick pep talk from rescue workers who had descended into the mine, a miner would strap himself in, make the journey upward and emerge from a manhole into first the night, and later the blinding sun.
The rescue was planned with extreme care. The miners were monitored by video on the way up for any sign of panic. They had oxygen masks, dark glasses to protect their eyes from unfamiliar light and sweaters for the jarring transition from subterranean swelter to chilly desert air.
As they neared the surface, a camera attached to the top of the capsule showed a brilliant white piercing the darkness not unlike what accident survivors describe when they have near-death experiences.
The miners emerged looking healthier than many had expected and even clean-shaven. Several thrust their fists upwards like prizefighters, and Mario Sepulveda, the second to taste freedom, bounded out and led his rescuers in a rousing cheer.
"We have prayed to San Lorenzo, the patron saint of miners, and to many other saints so that my brothers Florencio and Renan would come out of the mine all right. It is as if they had been born again," said Priscila Avalos. Florencio was the first miner rescued and Renan emerged last night.
Health Minister Jaime Manalich said some of the miners would probably will be able to leave the hospital today, earlier than projected, but many had been unable to sleep, wanted to talk with families and were anxious. One was treated for pneumonia, and two needed dental work.
"They are not ready to have a moment's rest until the last of their colleagues is out," he said.
As it travelled down and up, down and up, the rescue capsule was not rotating as much inside the 2,041ft escape shaft as officials expected, allowing for faster trips.
The men made 48 hours' worth of rations last before rescuers reached them with a narrow bore hole to send down more food.
No-one in recorded history has survived as long trapped underground. For the first 17 days, no one even knew whether they were alive. In the weeks that followed, the world was captivated by their endurance and unity.
The 33 miners who were trapped alive in the San Jose mine. Top row from left to right are Alex Vega Salazar, Ariel Ticona Yanez, Carlos Andres Bugueno Alfaro, Calros Barrios Contreras, Carlos Mamani Solis, Claudio Antonio Acuna Cortes, Claudio David Yanez Lagos, Daniel Esteban Herrera Campos, Dario Antonio Segovia Rojas, Edison Fernando Pena Villarroel and Esteban Alfonso Rojas Carrizo. Second row from left to right are Florencio Antonio Avalos Silva, Franklin Lobos Ramirez, Jimmy Sanchez Lagues, Jorge Hernan Galleguillos, Jorge Ricardo Ojeda Vidal, Jose Samuel Henriquez Gonzalez, Juan Andres Illanes Palma, Juan Carlos Aguilar Gaete, Luis Alberto Urzua, Mario Nicolas Gomez Heredia and Mario Sepulveda Espina. Third row from left to right are Omar Orlando Reygada Rojas, Osman Isidro Araya Acuna, Pablo Amadeos Rojas Villacorta, Pedro Cortez, Raul Enriquez Bustos Ibanez, Renan Anselmo Avalos Silva, Richard Reinaldo Villarroel Godoy, Samuel Dionisio Avalos Acuna, Victor Antonio Segovia Rojas, Victor Hermogenes Zamora Bugueno and Johny Barrios Rojas
INTO THE LIGHT...THE MINERS' PRIVATE LIVES
One is a great-grandfather four times over, another a 19-year-old father. A third - the oldest - is 63 and has spent half a century working the mines. A fourth had a wife and a mistress too.
The men who survived 69 days trapped underground after a mine collapse made history as they - and their private lives - tumbled out into the light.
THE MEDIC
Johnny Barrios Rojas' rescue was among the most anticipated - if only to see who would be there to greet him.
No 21 of the men pulled from the collapsed mine, Mr Barrios gained notoriety as the man who had two women at Camp Hope - his wife of 28 years Marta Salinas, and his mistress of four, Susana Valenzuela.
Ms Salinas apparently knew nothing of the affair until the two women ran into each other amid the tents pitched by family members anxiously holding vigil - and a very public spat ensued.
Mr Barrios, 50, looked around sheepishly today as he emerged from the rescue tube that elevated him to the Earth's surface, peering through sunglasses as mining officials in red shirts applauded loudly.
Behind him, smiling widely and waiting for him to notice her stood Ms Valenzuela. When he did not, the round-faced strawberry blonde walked around to face Mr Barrios and gave him a long kiss and hug, weeping into the shoulder of his jumpsuit as he whispered into her ear.
Ms Salinas was nowhere to be seen.
Weeks earlier, Mr Barrios' wife had ripped down a poster of her husband put up by his mistress. Defiant, the mistress taped the poster back up, and beneath several poems and prayers she had dedicated to him, she signed it "Your Wife".
Dubbed "el enfermero" - the nurse - Mr Barrios served as the miners' medic during the ordeal, dispensing medication sent in by health officials, passing out nicotine patches and photographing wounds.
He reportedly ended all his letters this way: "Get me out of this hole, dead or alive."
THE VETERAN
He had promised her if he got through this alive they would finally have their church wedding - after three decades, four daughters and seven grandchildren.
So when 63-year-old Mario Gomez emerged, grasped a Chilean flag and dropped to his knees to pray, Lilianett Ramirez was the one who pulled him up from the ground and held him in a long embrace.
The promise of a proper wedding came in the first letter Mr Gomez had ever written to his wife during their 30-year marriage. Scrawled on sheets of notebook paper, the letter was placed in a plastic bag and tied to the end of the drill bit that first broke through to their underground purgatory, along with another miner's message announcing: "We're all OK in the refuge, the 33."
Read on television by President Sebastian Pinera, Mr Gomez's "Dear Lila" letter was filled with faith and determination, and showed the world the miners were holding strong.
A miner since he was 12, Mr Gomez is missing three fingers on his left hand from a mine accident and suffers from silicosis, a lung disease common to miners. He made the ascent wearing an oxygen mask and was on antibiotics and medicine for bronchial inflammation.
As the most experienced miner in the group, Mr Gomez, using maps and diagrams, became "the GPS we needed down there", rescuers said.
THE ORGANISER
Omar Reygadas became a great-grandfather for the fourth time while trapped underground.
The 56-year-old electrician had survived other mine collapses and was said to have exclaimed "Not again!" when he and the others were trapped by the August 5 collapse.
Mr Reygadas later helped organise life below the surface, calming others when they got nervous and helping them get what they needed from authorities outside.
"He is in charge of ensuring that we are well," one miner wrote to his wife.
THE YOUNGSTER
Jimmy Sanchez, the youngest at 19, proposed to his 17-year-old girlfriend while he was trapped below, though his father urged him to reconsider. The couple have a four-month-old daughter.
"You are just 19, and have so much life ahead of you, to enjoy, to know people," read the letter Eugenio Sanchez sent to his son. "It cannot be that because you are now closed up in the mine that you are going to throw away all your plans."
"It's fine that you want to be with Helencita and everything... but get married? Well, marriage is a really serious thing."
But girlfriend Helen Avalos said she was sure they would be wed. "He has to keep his word," she said. But first, "We'll have an enormous party. I think we'll have almost 500 people."
THE EVANGELIST
Jose Henriquez turned to his Christian faith while he was underground, forming a prayer group that met several times a day and asking to have 33 bibles sent down the narrow supply passage.
Nevertheless, the 56-year-old father of twin daughters had one vice he hoped the time underground would cure.
Mr Herniquez' wife Hettiz Berrios was said to be happy when her husband asked authorities to send him food rather than cigarettes. "He's trying to stop puffing. ... Hopefully he'll do it," she said.
THE FOOTBALLER
Former Chilean national soccer player Franklin Lobos has never seen a bigger victory.
Mr Lobos, 53, briefly bounced a football on his foot and knee as he stepped from the capsule that carried him from the mine where he was trapped with 32 other men. Then he embraced relatives and President Pinera.
He is the only rescued man whose name was widely known in Chile before the disaster. He played for the Chilean team that qualified for the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.
He was the driver of a truck that takes miners to and from the mine and was in the mine with the group he ferries when the collapse occurred.
Timeline and the miners rescued
1. 12.04am - Florencio Avalos, 31, the second-in-command of the miners, chosen to be first because he was in the best condition.2. 1.10am - Mario Sepulveda Espina, 40, who captivated Chileans with his engaging personality in videos sent up from underground.
3. 2.08am - Juan Illanes, 52, a married former soldier who urged his fellow miners to be disciplined and organised while trapped.
4. 3.09am - Carlos Mamani, 24, the lone Bolivian, started at the mine five days before the collapse. One of 11 children who emigrated because he could find work, he has been promised a house and a job from Bolivian President Evo Morales.
5. 4.10am - Jimmy Sanchez, at 19, the youngest miner and father of a months-old baby.
6. 5.34am - Osman Isidro Araya, 30, the father of three, had planned to quit the mine at the end of August because of the risk.
7. 6.21am - Jose Ojeda, 47, a widower with no children who has diabetes. Two of his nephews were on hand at the site to greet him.
8. 7.02am - Claudio Yanez, 34, a drill operator who requested cigarettes be sent down while awaiting rescue and expressed disgust at the nicotine patches he received instead.
9. 7.59am - Mario Gomez, at 63 is the oldest of the miners. He also is the most experienced, having first entered a mine shaft to work at the age of 12.
10. 8.52am - Alex Vega, 31, who is married with two children, had been saving to buy a house and move out of his parents' home. His father helped in rescue efforts - using a false name because officials prohibited relatives from doing the dangerous work.
11. 9.31am - Jorge Galeguillos, 55, was injured in at least two earlier mining accidents. He has 13 brothers and requires medication for hypertension. Officials have promised to help his son, who is a university student.
12. 10.11am - Edison Pena, who is 34 and married, was reportedly among the most depressed of the trapped men and asked rescuers to send down a photo of the sun. He tried to run every day for exercise.
13. 10.54am - Carlos Barrios, 27, is the father of a five-year-old boy. He is separated from his wife.
14. 11.30am - Victor Zamora, 34, was a car mechanic and labourer who has worked at the mine for five years. He sent up poems to his wife, who is pregnant, and is the father of a four-year-old boy. While underground, he complained of tooth pain.
15. 12.07pm - Victor Segovia, 48, kept a diary of life below, asking those above to send down more pencils and paper. He has five cildren, is an electrician and plays guitar.
16. 12.49pm - Daniel Herrera, 37, was a truck driver and taxi driver. Herrera is single; his mother and sister have been waiting for him at Camp Hope.
17. 1.38pm - Omar Reygadas, 56, helped organise life below ground and reportedly survived other collapses in the mine. A widower, he has six children, 14 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren, including one born while he was trapped.
18. 2.49pm - Esteban Rojas, 44, proposed a church wedding "once and for all" in a message to the woman he married in a civil ceremony 25 years ago. They have three children.
19. 3.27pm - Pablo Rojas, 45, reportedly went to work at the mine six months ago to help pay university fees for his son, who is studying medicine. He is married.
20. 3.59pm - Dario Segovia, 48, is a lifelong miner whose father first took him underground at the age of eight. Twice married, he has three children from each marriage. He has worked at the mine for three months, drilling holes for dynamite. He has 12 brothers and sisters.
21. 4.31pm - Johnny Barrios Rojas, 50, worked for 25 years at the mine and served as the medic for the group because he had first aid training. Awaiting above are relationships that need healing as well: his wife and his lover met at Camp Hope.
22. 5.04pm - Samuel Avalos, 43, is married with three children. He had been working as a street vendor and got a job at the mine for more money.
23. 5.32pm - Carlos Bugueno, 26, found himself trapped alongside a childhood friend, Pedro Cortez. A passionate soccer fan, he asked to have game broadcasts piped below. Relatives said the former security guard went to work at the mine to earn money for a car and house.
24. 5.59pm - Jose Henriquez, 55, formed and led a prayer group while trapped and had friends send 33 small Bibles down the tiny supply hole. Chilean reports say that in January he helped save several miners who had passed out in the mine, apparently due to gas, and had to be rescued himself when he was overcome returning for another miner. Married with twin daughters, he has spent 33 years in the mines and survived a landslide on the surface in 1986.
25. 6.24pm - Renan Avalos, 29, is the brother of Florencio Avalos, the first man out. He had worked at the mine for five months.
26. 6.51pm - Claudio Acuna, 35, proposed to his girlfriend Fabiola Araya from below ground. He has two children.
27. 7.18pm - Franklin Lobos, 53, a former professional soccer player, drove the bus that carried the miners to work. Lobos was a midfielder on the Chilean teams La Serena, Iquique and Cobresal, and was on the national team that qualified for the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. He has two daughters.
28. 7.44pm - Richard Villaroel, 23, is returning to his wife, who is in the late stages of pregnancy.
29. 8.13pm - Juan Carlos Aguilar, 46, has worked as a miner since he was 19. He is married with two children.
30. 8.37pm - Raul Bustos, 40, a hydraulic engineer, was caught up in both of Chile's two recent tragedies. The tsunami caused by February's earthquake destroyed the shipyard where he worked so he journeyed north to work in the mine two months before he was trapped there. He would travel back 20 hours by bus to visit his wife and two children.
31. 9.01pm - Pedro Cortez, 25, an electrician, helped install the communications system used to talk back and forth with the surface. He lost a finger in an earlier mining accident. He and his wife are separated and have one daughter.
32. 9.28pm - Ariel Ticona, 28, was still awaiting rescue when his wife gave birth to their second daughter. They named her Hope. He worked with Mr Cortez to install the underground communications system.
33. 9.55pm - Luis Alberto Urzua, 54, shift foreman at the time of the collapse, is widely credited with helping the men survive by enforcing tight rations of their limited food, lights and other supplies. Speaking for the miners shortly after their discovery, he told Chilean president Sebastian Pinera: "We hope that all of Chile shows its strength to help us get out of this hell."