A tense, 48-hour res­cue op­er­a­tion in the deep for­est off Lala­ja, along the Ari­ma–Blan­chisseuse Road, con­clud­ed suc­cess­ful­ly yes­ter­day as na­tion­al emer­gency teams ex­tract­ed the in­jured hik­er, 40-year-old Fayyad Ho­sein of Rio Claro, who suf­fered a frac­tured left fe­mur dur­ing a re­mote hike.

As­sis­tant Di­vi­sion­al Fire Of­fi­cer for the North­ern Di­vi­sion, Cleave Cum­mings, praised the co­or­di­nat­ed ef­forts of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Fire Ser­vice, the Trinidad and To­ba­go De­fence Force (TTDF), and civil­ian guides, de­scrib­ing the mis­sion as one of the most de­mand­ing yet re­ward­ing his di­vi­sion has ex­e­cut­ed.

“This is not the first res­cue of this du­ra­tion, but this one car­ries a spe­cial mean­ing,” Cum­mings said. “We brought the ca­su­al­ty out alive. To­day we cel­e­brate the tenac­i­ty, de­ter­mi­na­tion, and team­work of every res­cuer.”