About 50 people evacuated after partial collapse of Sydney building

ABC NEWS (Australia)

About fifty people have spent the night away from their homes after the partial collapse of a 10-storey building in Sydney's Inner West. It was empty and being prepared for demolition, when strong winds knocked over parts of the building and its scaffolding.

Transcript

00:00We've got a couple of government officials, including safe work inspectors, presumably

00:06assessing whether or not works can resume to stabilize this site.

00:10It's a planned demolition here that's been accelerated by Mother Nature yesterday afternoon

00:15when howling winds pushed up and actually damaged not only the scaffolding that was

00:19supporting this western wall here, which is severely impacted, but also the actual concreting

00:25itself.

00:26And for a brief period of time there was some fears over the safety of workers on site as

00:30well as people in a nearby building.

00:32About 50 people, residents and indeed some workers too, had to be evacuated from the

00:37scene and weren't actually able to return to their places overnight.

00:41They had to sleep elsewhere in accommodation arranged for them by the government.

00:45Now a mixture of state government workers, council workers, as well as fire and rescue

00:49employees are all here on site waiting to resume work.

00:53We did have to see a cessation of work at one point this morning due to some malfunctions

00:58with a hydraulic machine.

01:00It was quite interesting, I should note too, yesterday afternoon at one stage to hold up

01:04this western wall they actually used another heavy duty machine just to pivot against the

01:09wall to prevent any further demolition and debris falling in and around.

01:13The inconvenience is still being felt today, although authorities are hoping to reopen

01:17railway parade behind me.

01:19The good news is though, no serious injuries at the moment and no other injuries reported

01:23so considering what's happened here it is an overall very safe outcome in what could

01:29have been far, far worse.

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