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Here’s How the Mining Rescue Brigade Plans to Find 2-Year-Old Julen Rosello After He Fell Down a Borehole
Fingers crossed. 2-year-old Julen Rosello has been trapped in a 10-inch-wide borehole since January 13, but a mining rescue brigade has a plan on how to find him. However, it sounds like a rather complicated and intricate plan, and anything could still happen.
Julen is trapped in a well in southern Spain, according to Reuters. The Mercury News reported on January 22 that he fell while his family was picnicking on a private estate in Totalán, in Málaga. The well is apparently only 10 inches wide and more than 300 feet deep, and Julen is likely at least 220 feet down. Unfortunately, officials can’t even be sure if Julen is still alive, and whether this effort to find him will turn out to be a rescue or a recovery of a body in the end.
Cranes and diggers are pictured at the site where a child fell down a well in Totalan, southern Spain, on January 22, 2019. – The search for a toddler who fell down a well in Spain nine days ago hit a fresh setback, complicating a difficult rescue operation which has had the country on tenterhooks. Two-year-old Julen Rosello fell down the narrow shaft on January 13 as he was playing while his parents prepared a picnic in Totalan, a southern town near Malaga.
El País reported on January 23 that members of the Mining Rescue Brigade will use a vertical shaft to travel underground — a shaft parallel to the borehole they believe Julen is trapped in. A platform will reportedly be installed next to the shaft they will descend into, and they will be lowered into the tunnel in a structure that was built for this operation. “The capsule will work as an elevator and will be suspended from a crane,” the outlet reported. Two miners will then go into the shaft, with equipment, and will need to travel to a depth of 61 meters. It’s there that exploratory cameras found a spot they believe Julen might be trapped.
Rescuers will then excavate a horizontal tunnel between three and four meters long using both manual and mechanical methods like picks and jackhammers, according to El País. They will use posts to strengthen the tunnel, and the idea seems to be that eventually, they will break through to the borehole where everyone believes Julen may be.
Rescuers will work in shifts, in an attempt to avoid anyone getting tired. Santiago Suárez, the head of the Mining Rescue Brigade between 2005 and 2009, told El País, “Down there they need to be at 100 percent, nothing less will do.” With any luck, their efforts will be successful and Julen will return home to his family. We can only hope.
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