Rescued Man Gives Thanks at Ceremony

Salvador Pena, the 43-year-old janitor trapped under two floors of a shopping mall garage during the Northridge quake, shook his rescuers’ hands Saturday and uttered to each of them one of his few English phrases: “Thank you very much, my friend.”

As part of what was billed as a community tribute to those who helped the city dig out after the Jan. 17 quake, Pena braved a chilly day in the parking lot of the hobbled Northridge Fashion Center--not far from the spot where 20 tons of concrete crumbled on top of him as he operated a power sweeper on the garage’s first floor.

Pena was not asked to speak to the 150 or so residents who gathered at the event, but told reporters through a translator that the pain from his crushed legs and damaged right hand was not enough to keep him away. In a wheelchair, he was helped to the stage by some of the same people who rescued him.

“I wanted to come and thank these people out of my own heart,” Pena said.

The Salvadoran immigrant, whose rescue was beamed throughout the country on live television, became a symbol of victims of the temblor’s worst devastation and the best efforts of the public safety workers who dug for seven hours to free him.

But wearing a Los Angeles Fire Department cap and a large crucifix around his neck, Pena was less upbeat than he has been in previous interviews. He said he was unsure when he would be released from Rancho Los Amigos Medical Center, or if he would walk again.

A power sweeper with Industrial Janitor Service in Van Nuys, Pena made $6 an hour; much of his earnings were sent back to El Salvador to support four of his five children who live there with his wife, Gloria de Pena. Pena told reporters he did not have a tally of his medical expenses and was not receiving assistance to pay those bills.

As he faced the crew that saved his life, Pena stared at the men intently. Some of Pena’s rescuers were emotional about the meeting with the man they saved. “I feel like crying,” said Lorenzo Izarraraz, the 20-year-old firefighter trainee who translated encouragement and instructions into Spanish the morning of the quake, shouting to the buried Pena through the cracks in the concrete debris.

“Not like when you cry when you’re mad or hurt, but when you cry about a great thing.”

Izarraraz recalled promising Pena that firefighters would rescue him even though he was not sure they could. “There was so much concrete on top of him,” Izarraraz explained. “He was just screaming and screaming.”

Pena shared the stage with various city and county honorees, including Police Chief Willie L. Williams, Fire Chief Don Manning and City Councilman Hal Bernson, who organized the event along with mall officials.

Rich Meline, a member of the county’s Urban Search and Rescue team, crouched next to Pena’s wheelchair and asked Izarraraz to tell Pena that he admired him.

“He was the one who inspired us to continue,” Meline said later. “Initially, it looked really hopeless and we were there trying to encourage him. We got a lot of strength from him.”