Chinese quake survivors pitching in to rescue friends, co-workers, classmates

SHIFANG, China -- Peng Hogan had just sat down for lunch when the earth began to shake. After pushing a slow-moving friend out the door to safety, he rushed to a nearby elementary school that collapsed in Monday's massive earthquake.

"With my two arms I carried out at least 20 children," Peng recalled Thursday at a makeshift shelter here. "They were fourth- and fifth-graders, kindergartners. Maybe 13 were alive."

"I kept yelling out, 'Is there anyone alive?' " Peng added, displaying the scars on his arms and legs from hours of clawing through concrete and rubble with his bare hands.

In the instant that entire communities in central China were wiped out, something beside body counts and refugees was born: heroes.

Until aid arrived, the survivors helped save relatives and neighbors.

Wang Zhaorong was just returning from her lunch break when the factory where she worked started to shake. Knowing a co-worker was still inside a dormitory taking a nap, she banged on the door until her colleague awoke and the two fled together. In the scramble, she fell and broke her leg.

Xie Peng, 13, escaped with his life from a middle school that pancaked in the quake. He was lucky, he said, because he is short and thus sat in the front row of a crowded classroom of 47. "There were two doors, but the one in the back was locked," he said. "We could only get out from the front."

Xie proceeded to help his buried classmates. "I heard one yell out, 'Save me!' " he said. "I looked closely and saw his hand. I went to get some adults and together we cleared away the debris and pulled him to safety."

Zhao Zhonghua, a cement-factory cafeteria cook, scurried out before the building crumbled.

The 37-year-old didn't even have time to check in with his family before assisting the wife of a fellow cook searching for her husband and mother. Both of them worked in the same kitchen.

"For five hours I dug through the rubble," said Zhao. "He was a co-worker and a friend. His wife was crying for help and she had no one left. I had to do something."

Before nightfall they pulled out the mother, who was alive. The husband, however, did not make it.