Racing Against Time to Rescue Person Trapped in Townhouse Collapse
Authorities continue to hold onto hope that a person believed to be trapped in the rubble of a collapsed townhouse is still alive as rescue efforts persist.
The explosion on Waikanda Crescent in Whalan, Sydney’s western area, completely flattened most of the two-story house just before 1 p.m. on Saturday, causing windows to shatter and impacting a neighboring townhouse.
Jeremy Fewtrell, the NSW Fire and Rescue Commissioner, expressed optimism in the crews’ ability to safely extricate the trapped individual.
“There is still a good chance for someone to survive,” he informed the press on Sunday morning. “Our primary focus is to meticulously search the building in its entirety, accessing each possible area for inspection either physically or with the aid of our tools.”
Mr. Fewtrell also divulged that the rescue operations encountered several obstacles as they persisted through the night.
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“A number of setbacks have been encountered during the rescue operation,” he mentioned.
“Rescue teams are painstakingly working through the debris, meticulously searching for any spaces where someone could be trapped. This involves manual labor of clearing the rubble piece by piece.”
The obstacles involved a gas leak, safety concerns regarding the extent of work permissible at the site, and a fire burning below the debris in the collapsed section.
Firefighters were unable to directly reach the fire due to the debris, although Mr. Fewtrell revealed that water application successfully suppressed the fire by draining down onto it.
In the aftermath of the incident on Saturday afternoon, crews managed to rescue a woman in her 60s, a wheelchair-bound woman in her 70s, and a small dog in good health from the wreckage. These individuals, along with two others, were taken to hospital for treatment, with all being discharged by Sunday morning as emergency responders remained on the lookout for the still-missing person believed to be trapped in the rubble.
The individual in question was reportedly on the second level of the building when it collapsed.
The cause of the explosion remained unknown as of yet, with firefighters employing seismic monitoring equipment to detect any sounds emanating from beneath the ruins.
NSW Police, heading the investigation, had initially responded to reports of a gas explosion.
Gas mains at the property were shut off earlier on Saturday to enable crews to intensify their search efforts, using concrete cutters to clear away the rubble safely.
