TAIPING, Sichuan, April 22
(Xinhua)-- Xie Jiangmin remembers when
he held a baby's body after
retrieving him hours after a deadly
quake that jolted southwest China's
Sichuan Province on
Saturday.
The one-year-old was
pulled out by Xie and his
fellow firefighters from a flattened
house with no sign of
life.
With a head injury,
the baby lay silently in his
arms, eyes closed and traces of
blood coming from his mouth and
nose, Xie recalled.
The boy
was in Xie's arms for no
more than eight seconds before being
wheeled away on a
stretcher.
"I held him and
it was the coldest I have ever
felt in my lifetime," Xie
said.
Xie had led five
firefighters to rescue survivors in
the village of Wuxing in Taiping
town, Lushan County, the epicenter of
the 7.0-magnitude earthquake that jolted
the area Saturday morning.
Xie
and his crew arrived in Wuxing
village on 9 a.m. Saturday, about
one hour after the quake. Xie
said they had just finished an
earthquake rescue drill held in
neighboring Meishan City and returned
to Yan'an the day before it
was hit by the
quake.
"We had checked our
equipment and the next day came
to the quake," Xie said, "it's
hard to tell what god was
thinking."
Xie arrived with the
first batch into Longmen township, one
of the worst hit areas, but
only found flattened
properties.
"My grandson and
his mother were buried in the
house," an elderly woman cried out
when they reached Wuxing
village.
At the site of
the woman's house, where once a
duplex brick-constructed house used to
be, was rubble and rocks in
which her relatives were
buried.
"No sound was heard
when we arrived," 21-year-old Zhang
Junhao said, another firefighter on
Xie's team who was helping with
rescue efforts for the first
time.
Zhang said firefighters
and villagers were moving concrete and
rubble in a human
chain.
An hour later, Xie
retrieved the baby boy,
dead.
The old woman collapsed
at the scene, screaming while
neighbors stepped in trying to comfort
her.
"She kept talking and
nobody knew what she was saying,
we had only six rescuers and
had to save the baby's mother,"
Xie said.
The mother was
in coma when being pulled out
of the debris, according to Xie.
Doctors said the mother is likely
to recover, which gave the old
woman a ray of
hope.
Rescuers are racing
against time to find as many
survivors as possible in Ya'an
as the "critical first 72 hours after
the disaster" ends in nine
hours.
Xie and his fellow
firefighters have finished their work
in Wuxing village and more rescue
operations will be carried out in
other villages.
However, the
rescue operation is hampered by huge
queues of traffic clogging roads into
disaster zones.
"I have been
busy rescuing, and not had a
minute to think about life and
death," Xie said, lighting up a
cigarette.
As of 6 p.m.
Monday, the quake had claimed at
least 192 lives and injured more than
10,000. An additional 23 people were
missing.
Related
Reading:Chinese Premier: Rescue every
personPremier Li Keqiang gives
light of hope and confidence to
quake victims as he leads rescue
work, comforts survivors and asks for
every home to be checked.Central government requires
orderly quake rescue The State Council General
Office has urged relevant authorities
and rescue forces to carry out
the quake relief work in an
orderly manner.Ministry calls for quake
donations transparencyChina's Ministry of Civil
Affairs on Monday asked charity groups
to regulate donations intended for the
area of southwest China rocked by
Saturday's deadly earthquake, calling
for transparency and social
supervision.Roads open to rescue
vehicles onlyAll vehicles not involved in
rescue efforts have been banned from
using roads in the quake zone
area in Sichuan provicne to help
people still trapped.Market unlikely to be
affected by SW China
quakeThe stock market is not
likely to slump on Monday because
of Saturday's magnitude-7 earthquake
in Ya'an, Sichuan
province.
（Editor：WangXin、Gao
Yinan）
