Relatives watch a video of the trapped miners on August 26. Ticona still plays soccer for his neighborhood team, and as the 32nd miner to be brought up from the mine, he has taken that number as a moniker and wears it proudly on his jersey. The same hole was used to provide the miners with food, supplies and letters.

They play checkers using a board made from cardboard, and dominoes one miner created by “pulling apart and cutting up the white plastic frame of the reflective traffic-hazard triangle in his truck.” They occasionally think they hear drilling, but no rescue appears.

After a lengthy investigation into the mine collapse, prosecutors in 2013 said there was not enough evidence to press criminal charges. "I'm alive thanks to God. The now 61-year-old says he teaches and performs Chilean folk dance to chase off the nightmares that wake him up at 4 a.m. every morning. CNN honored them as heroes in Los Angeles.

Jorge Galleguillos, a veteran miner at the San José Mine in Chile’s Atacama Desert, was working 2,000 feet below the Earth’s surface when he saw what he thought was a butterfly. Hunter’s ex-partner Tony Bobulinski: Joe Biden’s a liar and here’s the proof.

One of the miners celebrates along with the cheering crowd after stepping out of the Fenix capsule. 50,483, © 2020 NYP Holdings, Inc. All Rights Reserved Many of the miners struggled to readjust, feeling withdrawn and suffering flashbacks and nightmares. But mining companies are increasingly coming into conflict with indigenous communities who are worried about the future of their ecosystems. Drilling machines work in the rescue operation on August 24. They tied notes to the drill bit, informing those on the surface that all 33 of them were still alive.

One of the rescued miners emerges from the Fenix capsule. It sounded like “a massive skyscraper was crashing down behind them.”, “A single block of diorite, as tall as a 45-story building, has broken off from the rest of the mountain and is falling through the layers of the mine … causing a chain reaction as the mountain above it collapses, too.” This piece, the men would later learn, was about 550 feet tall and weighed 770,000 tons — “twice the weight of the Empire State Building.”, In the ensuing quake, several men were “knocked off their feet by a blast wave” as “the walls began to shake and stones the size of oranges [began] falling around them.”, When the quaking was done, the men found themselves trapped and one miner uttered, “Estamos cagados.” “Loose translation,” writes Tobar, “We’re f—ed.”, A quick inspection showed that “all the connections to the surface have been cut: the electricity, the intercom system, the flow of water and compressed air.”. The men, along with 31 others, were about to undergo an ordeal the likes of which few suffer, and fewer survive. Around 24 hours later, Luis Urzua became the last man to hit the surface. Ticona's daughter, Esperanza, was born while he was underground, and he was able to watch a video of her birth while in the mine. The collapse of the San José Mine on Aug. 5, 2010, became international news, as 33 men were trapped underground for 69 days, battling starvation and hopelessness as the world waited anxiously for news of their rescue.

The Fenix traveled down a hole only 28 inches in diameter to bring up the miners one by one.