INTERVIEW/Aunt, uncle's sacrifice saved 6-year-old girl trapped by floodwaters in Taiwan: Rescuer

Taipei, Sept. 27 (CNA) A lead rescuer in the flood rescues in eastern Taiwan's Hualien County has recounted to CNA how his team saved a 6-year-old girl trapped inside a house for over a day after a lake created by a landslide overflowed and flooded the town, crediting her survival to the sacrifice of her aunt and uncle in their final moments.

"When we first arrived, the house was already nearly submerged [by floodwaters]," Chen Shih-hung (陳世鴻), commander of the Special Search and Rescue Team under the Pingtung County Fire Bureau, told CNA in a phone interview on Friday.

Chen's team was among the units that rushed to the eastern county after the lake on Matai'an Creek overflowed Tuesday afternoon as Typhoon Ragasa brought heavy rain, flooding Hualien County's Guangfu, Wanrong and Fenglin townships.

The first attempt

After arriving Tuesday evening, one of the team's early missions was to rescue three people reported missing in that "nearly submerged" house in hardest-hit Guangfu Township, where a 6-year-old girl, nicknamed "Little Yi" (小沂), and her honorary aunt and uncle, who were not biologically related to her, were believed to be inside.

"Based on our assessment, with water at that level, the chance of survival was low," Chen said, adding that a six-member sub team had fought strong currents and deep water to get into the house to check for any signs of life, but found none at the time.

Chen -- who was at the command post directing his teammates on site -- said they initially reported that no one was visible during that first search, but he believed the sound of the floodwaters may have masked Little Yi's calls for help in that initial attempt.

'Let's try again.'

"The next day, the family [of "Little Yi"] kept seeking help, hoping some team members could go back and check again," he said, noting that many considered the risk too high to return.

After discussing the situation with the family, Chen said he was moved by its pleas and decided to send his full team of 23 members back for a second search on Wednesday afternoon.

"After we agreed to go for the rescue, the plan we drew up carried certain risks, so we sent everyone to help breach the house," he said.

"Let's try again and give it our all," Chen recalled telling his colleagues.

'I'm here!'

With help from a drone, the team mapped a route and set a plan to reach the house. Finding a part of the roof that was not submerged and was stable enough to stand on, Chen ordered his colleagues to cut open the roof to check the interior.

"As they were cutting the roof open, a child called out, 'I'm here!'" Chen said.

Body-camera footage released by the fire bureau shows the team cutting open the roof, revealing "Little Yi" on a roof beam in the living room, next to the ceiling fan inside the one-story home. She answered questions from rescuers and told them, "My grandpa and grandma are here too."

The "grandpa and grandma" the child referred to were actually her non-biological, honorary aunt and uncle, the family told CNA when asked about their relationship to the 6-year-old.

The two adults -- both in their 70s -- were subsequently found deceased and buried in mud.

Following the roof cut, the team swiftly rescued the girl and brought her, still covered in mud, back to her mother, who had been waiting at a shelter.

A human ladder that saved a life

Citing the family's account, Chen said the girl told them her uncle had lifted her to her aunt, and that the aunt placed the girl onto the roof beam. Noting that the beam was about 3 meters above the floor, beyond what an adult could reach, he surmised that the uncle probably lifted the aunt up so she could place the girl on the beam, forming a human ladder as floodwaters surged into the house.

"I believe the adults kept lifting the child higher to protect her -- that's what gave her a chance to survive," Chen said.

One sign this occurred, as mentioned by Chen, was that the aunt's body was found beneath "Little Yi," while the uncle's was farther below, deep in the mud, and had yet to be recovered as of Friday morning.

As a father of three daughters, Chen told CNA he was particularly touched after seeing the girl brought to safety.

He also credited her for being brave and calm: "It's rare for someone to endure a day and a night in such a tiny space and still be so strong."

Chen said the "miracle" would not have been possible without the aunt and uncle's sacrifice, "Little Yi's" will to survive, her family's unwavering push for rescuers to keep searching, and his team's determination to "try to find them."

Search & Rescue

It was not the first time Chen and his team had rescued people from a disaster.

In February 2023, after a magnitude-7.8 earthquake struck Türkiye, Chen led the Pingtung rescue team to the quake-hit country and successfully rescued a woman -- a mission that earned the 40-member team an award from the Taiwan Global Healthcare Association recognizing their humanitarian aid efforts.

"Rescuing people abroad or in Taiwan is the same," Chen said. "As long as there's even a sliver of hope, we won't give up until we get them out."

He told CNA the team has further enhanced its rescue capabilities using different means in recent years, including a drone unit established around two years ago that enabled them to plan their approach and assess conditions during the rescue of "Little Yi."

In late October, some team members will also travel to Singapore for technical exchanges and training with local counterparts, an initiative supported by the county government, according to Chen.

As for follow-up operations in Hualien, Chen said his next step is to hand over the work, as the search-and-rescue phase has ended after the 72-hour "golden window" for flood rescues came to a close on Friday. The remaining tasks will require heavy machinery to recover bodies buried deep in the mud.

As of 9:00 a.m. Saturday, the death toll from flooding in Hualien rose to 15 people, with seven others missing, according to the Central Emergency Operation Center.

For "Little Yi," the quick thinking, action, and selflessness of her aunt and uncle spared her from being counted as one of the unfortunate ones.