First of 33 Chilean miners rescued

SAN JOSE MINE, Chile - The first two of 33 men trapped in a collapsed mine were rescued early Wednesday after 69 days underground, pulled to freedom at last in a missile-like escape capsule to the cheers of family and countrymen.

Rescued first was Florencio Avalos, who wore a helmet and sunglasses to protect him from the glare of bright lights. He smiled broadly as he emerged and hugged his sobbing 7-year-old son, Bairon, and wife, then bearhugged Chilean President Sebastian Pinera and rescuers.

A second miner, Mario Sepulveda Espina, was pulled to the surface about an hour later. After hugging his wife, he jubilantly handed souvenir rocks to laughing rescuers.

After the first capsule came out of the manhole-size opening, Avalos emerged as bystanders cheered, clapped and broke into a chant of "Chi! Chi! Chi! Le! Le! Le!" - the country's name.

Avalos gave a thumbs-up as he was led to an ambulance and medical tests after his more than two months deep below the Chilean desert - the longest anyone has ever been trapped underground and survived.

Pinera described how lovely it was to see Avalos' sons greet their father, especially young Bairon.

"I told Florencio that few times have I ever seen a son show so much love for his father," the president said.

"This won't be over until all 33 are out," Pinera added. "Hopefully the spirit of these miners will remain forever with us. . . . This country is capable of great things."

"We made a promise to never surrender, and we kept it," Pinera said earlier as he waited to greet the miners, whose endurance and unity captivated the world as Chile meticulously prepared their rescue.

A mine-rescue expert was lowered in the capsule before Avalos' rescue. Manuel Gonzalez grinned and made the sign of the cross as he was lowered into the shaft. Pinera wished him good luck and urged him to bring the miners up in good shape.

Gonzalez made it to the bottom of the shaft and entered the chamber where the miners waited for their first human contact in more than two months.

An employee of the state copper company Codelco, Gonzalez was to be joined by Roberto Ros, a paramedic with the Chilean navy's special forces. It was expected to take as long as 36 hours for all the miners to surface.

Families and reporters huddled around televisions and bonfires as a preliminary list of the order of rescue was announced. Avalos, the first one out, is the second-in-command of the miners.

The last miner out was also decided: Shift foreman Luis Urzua, whose leadership was credited for helping the men endure 17 days with no contact from the outside world after the collapse. The men made 48 hours worth of rations last that entire time before rescue crews could drill holes to them and send down more food.

The paramedics are empowered to change the order of rescue based on a brief medical check once they were down below with the miners. First out were those best able to handle any difficulties and tell their comrades what to expect. Then, the weakest and the ill - in this case, about 10 suffering from hypertension, diabetes, dental and respiratory infections, and skin lesions from the mine's oppressive humidity. The last should be people who are both physically fit and strong of character.

Chile has taken extensive precautions to ensure the miners' privacy, using a screen to block the top of the shaft from more than 1,000 journalists at the scene.

Each ride up the shaft was expected to take about 20 minutes, and authorities expected they would be able to haul up roughly one miner per hour. When the last man surfaces, it promises to end a national crisis that began when 700,000 tons of rock collapsed on Aug. 5, sealing the miners into the lower reaches of the gold and copper mine.

The only media allowed to record them coming out of the shaft are a government photographer and Chile's state television channel, whose live broadcast is being delayed 30 seconds or more to prevent the release of anything unexpected.

The worst technical problem that could happen, rescue coordinator Andre Sougarett said, is that "a rock could fall," potentially jamming the capsule partway up the shaft. But test rides suggested the ride up would be smooth.

Panic attacks are the rescuers' biggest concern. The miners will not be sedated - they need to be alert in case something goes wrong. If a miner must get out more quickly, rescuers will accelerate the capsule to a maximum 3 meters per second, Health Minister Jaime Manalich said.

The rescue attempt is risky simply because no one else has ever tried to extract miners from such depths, said Davitt McAteer, who directed the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration during the Clinton administration. A miner could get claustrophobic and do something that damaged the capsule. Or the cable could get hung up. Or the rig that pulls the cable could overheat.

"You can be good and you can be lucky. And they've been good and lucky," McAteer said. "Knock on wood that this luck holds out for the next 33 hours."

Mining Minister Laurence Golborne, whose management of the crisis has made him a media star in Chile, said that authorities had already thought of everything.

"There is no need to try to start guessing what could go wrong. We have done that job," Golborne said. "We have hundreds of different contingencies."

As for the miners, Manalich said, "It remains a paradox - they're actually much more relaxed than we are."

Rescuers finished reinforcing the top of the 2,041-foot escape shaft early Monday, and the 13-foot-tall capsule descended flawlessly in test runs. The capsule - the biggest of three built by Chilean navy engineers - was named Phoenix I for the mythical bird that rises from ashes. It is painted in the white, blue, and red of the Chilean flag.

The miners were to be closely monitored from the moment they were strapped into the claustrophobic steel tube to be hauled up the smooth-walled tunnel. They were given a special high-calorie liquid diet prepared by NASA, designed to keep them from vomiting as the rescue capsule rotates 10 to 12 times through curves in the 28-inch-diameter escape hole.