All Safe...Joy Abounds

In a flawless operation that unfolded before a transfixed world, the men, who had been trapped for more than two months, were raised one by one in a metal capsule that was winched up a narrow shaft of rock. Not even a full 24 hours after the rescue began, Mr Urzua, 54, made his ascent emerged from a manhole-sized opening in the ground.

Mission accomplished: all 33 miners brought to safety Jubilation erupted as he took his first breath of fresh air in 10 weeks and joked with waiting rescuers that he had just finished a "long shift." Stepping out of Phoenix 2, the metal capsule that brought the miners to the surface one by one, he was embraced by Chilean President Sebastian Pinera.

Mr Urzua, who was the miners' shift foreman, had volunteered to be the last man up.  Like the captain of a ship he refused to leave until he knew all his men were safe. Known to other miners as "Don Lucho," he has been described as a born leader and is credited with having kept his men going in their darkest hours, and successfully rationing what little food they had.
Mr Urzua said: "It was hard, that was a shift of 70 days. We have done an excellent job, we have done what the entire world was waiting for. "The first several days, I can't even explain it, but we had strength, we had spirit, we wanted to fight. We wanted to fight for our families, that was the greatest thing. Those 70 days we fought so hard were not in vain."
He said the toughest moment was right after the collapse on Aug 5 in which 700 tons of rock buried the men alive. Mr Urzua described how, as the dust cleared, he saw the fallen rock"I thought I was in a movie," he said.

Mr Pinera produced for him the note the miners had attached to a drill probe 17 days after the cave-in, which let the world know they were there.
"We didn't know until this note whether you were dead or alive," said Mr Pinera. "We cried. In all the homes of Chile we cried." Mr Pinera told Mr Urzua he had been a "good captain" and the two men led rescuers in a rendition of Chile's national anthem, holding their hard hats over their hearts.

In a spirit of unity many of the other miners' relatives had not gone to the hospital in nearby Copiapo, staying until Mr Urzua emerged. They gathered in front a huge screen at Camp Hope, the ramshackle settlement that has formed near the mine, to watch a live feed. Tired but happy faces gazed up at the pictures and round after round of "Viva Chile!" rang out.

Darwin Cortez, brother of Pedro Cortez, the 31st miner up, sprayed champagne across the crowd. He said: "Thank god, thank god. They are all safe. It's a miracle!" One by one throughout the day, the miners had emerged to the cheers of exuberant Chileans. The operation had picked up speed as the day went on, but each miner was greeted with the same boisterous applause.
It began at midnight on Tuesday when the first miner Florencio Avalos, 31, was successfully brought to the surface. He was followed by the ebullient Mario Sepulveda, 40, who leaped in the air and hugged everyone in sight. As the rescue progressed far more quickly than expected, the rest of the miners were brought up as swiftly as one every 25 minutes. They were monitored by video on the way up for any sign of panic. They had oxygen masks, dark glasses to protect their eyes, and sweaters for the jarring transition from subterranean swelter to chilly desert air.

The miners emerged looking healthier than many had feared. After they were all out rescuers who had gone down to help with the extraction were also safely lifted back to the top. The last rescuer up was Manuel Gonzalez, a mine rescue expert with Chile's state-owned Codelco copper company, who had also been the first to go down. He talked the miners through the final hours inside their cave and then spent 26 minutes there alone. Before being winched up he bowed to the camera that had been installed in the miners' chamber and raised his arms aloft. He reached the surface at 12:32am local time.

In the town of Copiapo, where many of the miners are from, thousands of people had erupted into cheers as Mr Urzua emerged and church bells rang out. There was a deafening cacophony of car horns and people waved Chilean flags and jumped with exuberance, many wearing huge hats in the national colours.
"Tonight we experienced a night we will never forget, full of emotion, full of joy," said Mr Pinera.