The day is September 19, 1985. The ground shakes violently, buildings collapse, 10,000 lives are lost. Mexico was just hit by its historic magnitude 8.1 earthquake.
A man rushes to find his brother, knowing he was inside a building that was reduced to rubble. With his bare hands — no helmet nor equipment — he dove into the debris to attempt to free his brother, and succeeded. The rescue took hours, but he luckily found his brother alive and helped him out of the ruined building.
Others weren’t so lucky. They cried out for help desperately for their families to be rescued from the destroyed structures, Hector knew he could not simply walk away. So he stayed to help, rescuing countless others from the rubble along with other volunteers during the aftermath of the ginormous earthquake.
That was the day when the legendary “Topos Azteca” rescue brigade was born, with Héctor Méndez as their leader, now nicknamed “Topo Mayor.”
Today, Méndez is assisting in the rescue efforts in Venezuela after the double earthquake hit. Still saving lives at 80 years-old, 40 years after he found and rescued his own brother from the same situation.
What a legend.
