Crews narrow search area for person missing in parking-deck collapse
CBC
Search and rescue workers believe they have found the area where one person remains trapped after part of a rooftop parking deck collapsed into the office space below in East Vancouver on Thursday.
Crews zeroed in on a section of rubble Friday after searching for the missing person through the night.
"We have a have a general idea of where they were last seen," said Trevor Connelly, assistant chief of operations with Vancouver Fire & Rescue Services. "Search dogs on scene identified an area where we could focus our search ... that's what we're doing now."
Connelly said the team has tried to make voice contact with the person but hasn't heard any responses or noises back.
Crews are carefully sifting through an unstable heap of concrete, dirt, drywall, electrical wires, metal ducting and other rubble. A vacuum truck will be arriving Friday in an effort to remove debris from the area, the chief added.
"There was a large pile of dirt on the parking surface area when it collapsed and that large pile of dirt did go into the hole with everything else," Connelly said.
"The work is extremely, painstakingly slow."
Fire officials said the collapse happened while a skid-steer loader was working on the roof of the building on Lougheed Highway around 1 p.m. PT. The loader and its driver fell along with the roof, leaving a hole about nine by 12 metres in size.
Eight people were rescued from a second-floor office space on Thursday. Fire crews brought them out through a window and down a ladder, crews said.
Two of those people were taken to hospital. One of them has been confirmed as the driver of the loader, Connelly said.
An update on their conditions was not immediately available.
Officials said people in the building did a head count after the collapse and notified crews that one person was unaccounted for.
"[Crews are] prepared to do what it takes today to find our missing person," said Karen Fry, chief of Vancouver Fire & Rescue Services. "There's a family out there that's missing a person and that's where our thoughts are right now."
A new crew arrived on scene Friday morning to relieve the team that worked overnight. The Heavy Urban Search and Rescue task force, which specializes in complex industrial rescues, is also working on the search.
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