All 33 Chilean Miners Rescued
CNN reports:
After 69 days and a cost as high as $20 million, 33 miners have finally been extracted from the bowels of the earth. To roaring applause, Chilean President Sebastian Pinera placed a metal cap on top of the rescue hole early Thursday morning -- and marked the end of a rescue operation that captivated the globe.
But in a way, the story is just beginning -- both for the miners, who now must live with their new status as folk heroes and the spotlight that comes with it, and the government, whose attention turns to protecting workers' safety.
"I hope this will never happen again," said shift foreman Luis Urzua, the last miner out of the gold and copper mine, as Pinera embraced him.
Rescue worker Manuel Gonzalez, the first human being to descend more than 2,000 feet in a custom-made capsule to reach the miners, was the last of six rescuers to ascend. He waved and bowed before an underground camera before climbing into the capsule for the last time.
Colleagues and onlookers cheered as Gonzalez surfaced, with one person quipping, "Did you leave everything in order down there? Are the beds made? You didn't turn off the light."
But the situation wasn't entirely light-hearted. He too urged the president to push for worker safety.
"I hope we have learned from it and that Chilean mining will be different," he told Pinera. "I hope that things will be done correctly .. especially dealing with small mining concerns - that things be done right.," Gonzalez told the president. "This is what I want."
As worldwide exultation over the rescue begins to settle, more daunting tasks loom -- understanding why the mine collapsed on August 5, and making sure such an incident doesn't happen again.
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