This week, the Mexican army responded to a crisis where a mine had flooded and made it difficult to rescue miners trapped inside.
On March 25th, a mine in Mexico’s Sinaloa State had its sides cave in and let in water, putting the lives of 25 miners in danger. The mine, known as the Santa Fe, located within the municipality of El Rosario, soon began flooding. Fortunately, 21 miners managed to escape safely.
One more miner was rescued after five days. He was found 985 feet deep. After more than 10 days, divers identified the location of one of the remaining three miners, Francisco Zapata Najera. However, they could not swim through the floods to rescue him.
The Army Comes to the Rescue
As the situation became more complicated, the Mexican army deployed its Emergency Response Battalion to assist. Gladly, they were able to rescue Najera after lowering the water level. That was Wednesday, 21 hours after the rescue team first located him.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has thanked the army emergency team for a wonderful job. She added that, were it not for their dedication and the resilience and faith of the miner, the successful rescue would not have been possible.
Najera had been in the flooded underground for two weeks by the time the army rescued him. Unfortunately, of the two remaining miners, one was dead when he was found, and the other is yet to be found.
Miner Taken to Army Hospital for Treatment
Once the army emergency team brought Najera to the surface, they stabilized him. Then they took him to a waiting helicopter amidst jubilation from a gathered crowd.
They flew him to an Air Force hospital in Mazatlan City, in the same state of Sinaloa, where specialists were on standby to treat him. Everyone in Mexico is grateful to their army, and more so to its selfless Emergency Team.