A local team had a hand in the near-miraculous rescue of a 15-year-old who had been buried by rubble in Nepal for five days.
A U.S. doctor attends to Pemba Tamang inside an ambulance after being rescued by Nepalese policemen and U.S. rescue workers from a building that collapsed five days ago in Kathmandu, Nepal, Thursday, April 30, 2015. Crowds cheered Thursday as Tamang was pulled, dazed and dusty, from the wreckage of a seven-story Kathmandu building that collapsed around him five days ago when an enormous earthquake shook Nepal.
(AP Photo / Manish Swarup)
AP Photo / Manish Swarup
Pemba Tamang is carried on a stretcher after being rescued by Nepalese policemen and U.S. rescue workers from a building that collapsed five days ago in Kathmandu, Nepal, Thursday, April 30, 2015. Crowds cheered Thursday as a Tamang was pulled, dazed and dusty, from the wreckage of a seven-story Kathmandu building that collapsed around him five days ago when an enormous earthquake shook Nepal.
(AP Photo/Niranjan Shresta)
AP Photo/Niranjan Shresta
Pemba Tamang is carried on a stretcher after being rescued by Nepalese policemen and U.S. rescue workers from a building that collapsed five days ago in Kathmandu, Nepal, Thursday, April 30, 2015. Crowds cheered Thursday as a Tamang was pulled, dazed and dusty, from the wreckage of a seven-story Kathmandu building that collapsed around him five days ago when an enormous earthquake shook Nepal.
(AP Photo / Niranjan Shrestha)
AP Photo / Niranjan Shrestha
Pemba Tamang, 15, recovers at the Israeli field hospital for earthquake victims after being rescued in an operation led by a Nepalese team with American responders from the U.S. Agency for International Development assisting them, in Kathmandu, Nepal, Thursday, April 30, 2015. Crowds cheered Thursday as Tamang was pulled, dazed and dusty, from the wreckage of a seven-story Kathmandu building that collapsed around him five days ago when an enormous earthquake shook Nepal.
(AP Photo/Manish Swarup)
AP Photo/Manish Swarup
Pemba Tamang, 15, recovers at the Israeli field hospital for earthquake victims after being rescued in an operation led by a Nepalese team with American responders from the U.S. Agency for International Development assisting them, in Kathmandu, Nepal, Thursday, April 30, 2015. Crowds cheered Thursday as Tamang was pulled, dazed and dusty, from the wreckage of a seven-story Kathmandu building that collapsed around him five days ago when an enormous earthquake shook Nepal.
(AP Photo/Manish Swarup)
AP Photo/Manish Swarup
A U.S. doctor attends to Pemba Tamang inside an ambulance after being rescued by Nepalese policemen and U.S. rescue workers from a building that collapsed five days ago in Kathmandu, Nepal, Thursday, April 30, 2015. Crowds cheered Thursday as Tamang was pulled, dazed and dusty, from the wreckage of a seven-story Kathmandu building that collapsed around him five days ago when an enormous earthquake shook Nepal.
(AP Photo / Manish Swarup)
AP Photo / Manish Swarup
People watch as Nepal policemen and US rescue workers prepare to pull out Pemba Tamang, a teenage boy from the rubble of a building five days after the earthquake in Kathmandu, Nepal, Thursday, April 30, 2015. Crowds cheered Thursday as Tamang was pulled, dazed and dusty, from the wreckage of a seven-story Kathmandu building that collapsed around him five days ago when an enormous earthquake shook Nepal.
(AP Photo / Manish Swarup)
AP Photo / Manish Swarup
Nepalese policemen lift their commander and celebrate after they along with U.S. rescuers pulled out Pemba Tamang, a teenage boy from a building that collapsed five days ago in Kathmandu, Nepal, Thursday, April 30, 2015. Crowds cheered Thursday as Tamang was pulled, dazed and dusty, from the wreckage of a seven-story Kathmandu building that collapsed around him five days ago when an enormous earthquake shook Nepal.
(AP Photo / Manish Swarup)
FAIRFAX, Va. — A local team had a hand in the near-miraculous rescue of a 15-year-old who had been buried by rubble in Nepal for five days.
On Thursday morning, the Fairfax County Urban Search and Rescue team, along with Nepalese rescuers, helped pull him to safety.
Hundreds cheered as the 15-year-old, Pemba Tamang, was pulled out of the wreckage, dazed and dusty, and carried away on a stretcher. He had been trapped under the collapsed debris of a seven-story building in Kathmandu since Saturday, when the magnitude-7.8 earthquake struck.
The team was already out searching when it heard about the possible survivor in the rubble.
It helped clear debris and get into the entombed space where Tamang was buried.
“It boosts your morale and gives you a new sense of purpose and drive,” says Capt. Randy Bittinger, who stayed back in Fairfax County.
The story of Tamang’s rescue has made headlines around the world.
Tamang told The Associated Press he was working in a hotel in the building when it began to shake.
“Suddenly the building fell down,” he said. “I thought I was about to die.”
All he had to eat was ghee, or clarified butter.
The jubilant scene was welcome on a drizzly, chilly day in Kathmandu where many residents remained on edge over aftershocks that have rattled the city since Saturday’s mammoth quake killed more than 5,900 people and destroyed thousands of houses and other buildings.
“Unfortunately, we don’t find many survivors on some of these missions,” Bittinger says.
“That’s why we signed up for this team, and that’s why we do this work.”
The team deployed from Fairfax County has 57 members and six canine units.
Andrew Mollenbeck and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
