Dramatic moments of fatal Gansu landslide

Second wave of rescuers

Lu Zhenghong, chief of the Longnan Fire and Rescue Detachment, said they immediately activated the emergency response plan after receiving an emergency call.

Provincial fire authorities mobilized rescue teams from Longnan and neighboring Tianshui, dispatching firefighters, sniffer dogs and rescue vehicles to the remote mountainside village.

By the time the operation was fully underway, 375 rescuers, including firefighters, police officers and militia personnel, had joined the search.

When Zhang Shenzhou, captain of the special rescue squad at the Hanwang Fire and Rescue Station in Wudu district, Longnan, arrived at the foot of the landslide, the scale of the disaster was even larger than he had imagined.

Zhang had left with the second wave of rescuers shortly after receiving the deployment order. After driving more than 100 kilometers from Wudu, the firefighters found that their rescue vehicles could go no farther.

The mountain road into the valley was blocked.

Loaded with life-detection equipment, slope-monitoring radar and other rescue gear, the firefighters continued on foot, trekking more than a kilometer before reaching the devastated mountainside.

"We initially estimated the landslide at about 6,000 to 7,000 cubic meters," Zhang said. "When we got there, we realized it was much larger."

He said observation posts established overlooking the slope played a huge role. "During the rescue there were several secondary slides, and we had to withdraw more than once," Zhang said.

Working beneath an unstable slope required painstaking coordination. Each excavator was paired with a firefighter acting as a lookout, while several more rescuers stood nearby with stretchers and shovels, ready to take over the moment anything was uncovered.

"We couldn't dig quickly," Zhang said. "The exact locations of the victims were unknown. The excavator removed the soil little by little, and once we found someone, we switched to hand tools."

The search finally ended at about 3:40 am. By then, Zhang's team had recovered seven bodies.

Doctors' quick response

At Tanchang County People's Hospital, doctors rushed back to work as soon as they received word of the disaster at about 7:20 am, said Shen Jiangtao, director of the orthopedic department.

"Within 10 minutes of receiving the notification, everyone in our department was back on duty," Shen said.

The department's 25 doctors and nurses immediately split into two groups. Some joined ambulances heading toward the disaster site to provide pre-hospital emergency care, while others remained at the hospital, preparing operating rooms, wards and emergency treatment areas for the injured who would soon begin arriving.

Shen stayed behind to coordinate treatment.

The hospital opened a green channel for the victims. As ambulances returned from the mountains, each injured survivor was taken directly for an examination before being transferred to the orthopedic department.

"It happened very quickly," Shen said. "Everything was already in motion."

The department admitted five injured patients.

Most suffered relatively minor injuries, but one patient arrived in significantly worse condition. Initial examinations found two fractures. Follow-up scans later revealed a third fracture, along with a traumatic chest injury that caused fluid to accumulate around the lungs.

After expert assessment, one of the more seriously injured patients was transferred to a hospital in Longnan for further care.

But the injuries inflicted by large natural disasters are psychological as well.

Firefighter Zhang has responded to some of China's most devastating disasters, including the Wenchuan and Jiuzhaigou earthquakes, the Zhouqu mudslide and major floods in Longnan.

Yet, he said scenes like those in Tanchang still weigh heavily on him. "Human beings are very small in the face of nature," he said quietly. "All we can do is our very best to bring the victims home and give their families an answer."

The rescue left its mark not only on victims' families but also on some of the young firefighters.

Several had never participated in rescue work for a disaster of this scale. Faced with the realities of the recovery effort, some froze in place, overwhelmed by what they had seen, Zhang said.

"They had never experienced anything like this," he said. "Psychologically, it was very hard for them."

The Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Emergency Management on Wednesday announced they had allocated 30 million yuan ($4.41 million) to Gansu for search and rescue, evacuation, emergency geological disaster response, and checks for potential secondary disaster risks.

Yang Mingze contributed to this story.

Contact the writers at majingna@chinadaily.com.cn