this is rescue 104. we need transport to the trauma center. after eight grueling hours of breaking up and removing debris from around the trapped man, they are able to lift salvador pena out of the hole in the ground. i m pretty ecstatic. i mean, considering. look at this place and you just know that it s a miracle, actually. it s a miracle. but there is some grim news. 57 people died from the northridge earthquake. 16 of them at the meadows apartment complex. it caused more than $20 billion in damage, making it the costliest earthquake in u.s. history. steve langdon says those hours of being trapped alone, not knowing if he d make it out alive, changed him forever. this kind of event made me realize that today is the only day i have.
gear and, along with his crew, begins tearing away at the building. get back! they reach steve s roommate first. oh, the sky looks beautiful. steve is now counting the long minutes until they come back for him. he s right by that window. i think there was more aftershocks, and i could still hear the building settling. now the rescuers slice deeper into the building trying to free steve. and not a moment too soon. i had five fractured ribs and i had a collapsed lung and i had almost a quart of blood in my lungs. later they told me i was probably within 20 to 30 minutes of drowning in my own blood. almost six hours after he was trapped under the rubble, steve is carried out of the building. i just remember seeing all these people. i mean, not anybody i knew. there were just people, cameras, i remember people taking pictures, people yelling. not long after steve s rescue, there s another reason to celebrate. this time at the mall.
people trapped everywhere. we ve been hit with a major earthquake. it s 4:31 a.m., january 17th, 1994. centered in the northridge section of los angeles, california, 20 miles north of downtown, it all happened so fast, in seven terrifying seconds, nature unleashes its fury. the first thing i heard was a loud explosion. everything started shaking violently. most of the residents at the northridge meadows apartments, including steve langdon are at home when the quake rattles them out of their beds. the only thing i could think about is getting under something or getting to the doorway. i took a couple steps and there was a dresser that was against the wall that hit me in the chest and knocked me back down. firefighter mike henry on the overnight at the firehouse is jolted out of his sleep.
it was such a ferocious sound. my initial thought was we had a bomb that hit the fire station. he and his crew head out immediately to assess the damage. and when they get to the northridge meadows apartments, everything looks fine to him. the people that were out in the street said the building had collapsed. and we shined a light on the building, and it looked like it was fine. henry doesn t know it yet, but the building is anything but fine. steve langdon whose apartment is on the first floor is laying face down on his mattress still struggling to get to his feet. i couldn t figure out what was on top of my head because i couldn t get it off me. i was trapped. when firefighter mike henry and his team discover just what s pinning steve langdon and others trapped on the first floor of the apartment complex, it will trigger a massive rescue effort. but at the moment, all seems quiet at the meadows, at least to the rescuers. so henry and his crew continue on looking for vict
this person and i don t want to hit him. so be very careful about how deep i set the saw down into the material. henry s been hacking away for two hours and is physically and emotionally spent. he had just been searching for a little boy, and when he finds him, it isn t good news. after reporting the boy s death to his mother, henry needs a moment to pull himself together. but that brief break is interrupted by an excited fire department volunteer. he came running over. we were the closest ones. he said, hey, there s somebody talking to us. steve langdon has finally managed to attract some attention with the help of his roommate, jerry, who has a hearing impairment and is also trapped in his bedroom right next to steve s. my head was against the mattress, so my voice was really muffled. jerry had a hard time hearing me because he didn t have his hearing aid on, so i became jerry s ears and he became my