When the deadly 7.4 magnitude earthquake struck Colombia on Monday, Brian Osorio Zuluaga ran out of his office in Cali and rushed home on his motorbike.
The sight of a collapsed five-story residential building forced him to stop.
“It was a large complex, covering an entire block,” Osorio told CNN.
The quake was the strongest to hit Colombia in more than a decade and sent residents and neighbors of the building, La Torres del Limonar, fleeing into the street, “some in sleepwear or pajamas; some crying, others in shock,” Osorio said.
He approached the rubble and began shouting into the wreckage for survivors, despite warnings about a possible gas leak.
He suddenly asked those around him for silence. A faint sound rose out of the debris — barely a whisper.
“Yes, I’m here. I’m with a baby,” a man’s voice replied.
Osorio described how he and several others began moving debris with their hands to reach the pair. But a large concrete slab blocked their way.
The slab was too heavy to toss aside, and Osorio was worried there could be more people trapped underneath. Some volunteers held it aloft as others cleared a path to the baby.
“You can see the baby’s little head there — which, at the time, looked sort of purplish because he couldn’t breathe,” Osorio said. “Once we started removing the rubble, the baby began to… breathe, and his color started to come back.”
Video of the remarkable rescue filmed by Osorio shows the tiny infant in a dusty bodysuit being carefully pulled out of the wreckage. A man, his arm bloodied, can be seen lying awkwardly on his side, still half-trapped under a concrete plank.
Osorio said he was handed the baby, a boy, and gave him to a police officer, who took him to an ambulance. They then turned their attention to freeing the trapped man.
In the rubble, Osorio said he saw clothes, shoes, and a stuffed animal covered in dust. He thought about the people who might still be trapped.
“All those thoughts go through your mind,” he said.
“It’s better to act than to stand still,” Osorio added. “Every bit helps.”
