Feature: Bereaved fireman searches for survivors

WATCH VIDEO

Source: CCTV.com | 06-20-2008 16:19

After the May 12th earthquake devastated much of Southwest China's Sichuan province, a massive nationwide race against time started to save lives. More than 139,000 soldiers and officers from the PLA and the armed police, as well as over 28,000 police officers, fire fighters and special police officers took part.

Hu Shunyang is from Sichuan Province, and he has not rested easy since the quake jolted his hometown in Beichuan county.

Hu Shunyang, fire fighter

Hu Shunyang said, "I kept calling and I tried the numbers of all my family members. But I could not reach any of them."

Hu has served as a firefighter for five years in Ningxia, over one thousand miles from his home in Beichuan, one of the worst hit areas by the quake.

20 hours after the quake, Hu had still not received any news of his family. After a sleepless night, he finally got a phone call.

Hu Shunyang said, "My uncle told me that our hometown was totally flattened and my mother might not have survived. I felt like my world had collapsed."