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No victims in U.S. parking garage collapse

18 July 2010 02:24 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Emergency rescue teams worked through the early hours of Saturday morning to reach one and possibly two people believed trapped in cars by an underground garage collapse in Hackensack in the U.S. state of New Jersey only to find two crushed but empty vehicles, APA reports quoting Xinhua News Agency.

"There was only one minor firefighter injury" reported from the collapse and massive search and rescue operation involving about 300 emergency responders, Lt. Stephen Lindner of the Hackensack Fire Department told Xinhua. "Itâ€™s amazing. If you saw this hole in the ground you wouldnâ€™t believe it. We feel pretty fortunate only one injury."

Some 300 residents of Prospect Towers at 300 Prospect Ave. were being kept from their homes and were not expected to be let back in until at least Sunday.

He said searchers were "pretty confident nobody is trapped. Everybody is accounted for except for one person who travels a lot and we are trying to determine if that is the case. It looks like we have good news to share."

But, he cautioned: "It is a difficult situation. There are still some issues regarding a possible further collapse."

The fire department considered it on Saturday still "a major operation."

During the attempted rescue operation, the spokesman said, emergency responders had to dig "painstakingly" and shore up debris as they inched toward the trapped vehicles. Eighteen vehicles were buried and 10 were freed by Saturday afternoon.

"We have a professional company shoring up the debris now as we continue to search," he said. "City engineers are on the scene. We are not putting anybody (residents) back in unless absolutely, positively, sure it is safe. Right now it looks secure, but we are going to make sure before letting anyone in."

From the locations of the two trapped vehicles with their lights flashing in the collapsed garage -- they were not in parking spots -- it looked like someone may have been driving them at the time of the 10 a.m. (EDT) collapse Friday, Lindner said. But, it is now believed the cars probably were shifted from their original positions by forces in the collapse.

The first car was on the first level down and the second was between the first and second levels, he said.

Urban search and rescue teams used video cameras to peer around corners to see the cars in the debris and the images suggested to rescuers at least one person was trapped, the spokesman said. " Eventually we got sniffer dogs in there to determine if there were humans there. The dogs got no scent. So, we are pretty confident no one is trapped."

There had been reports as many as three people were trapped, but only one victim located, Lindner told reporters Friday, citing the videos.

A steel and glass canopy at the apartment building created an atrium-like environment which fell, witnesses told reporters. At least two floors of an underground garage underneath the canopy pan caked.

The city of Hackensack, about 15 kilometers west of New York City, was aided in the response by the New Jersey Task Force of emergency responders, which was formed after the 9/11 attack in New York City in 2001, the spokesman said. Task force members were then trained in search and rescue operations and units received federal assistance funding.