One person missing, eight rescued after rooftop parking lot collapse in Vancouver

Search and rescue crews work at the site of a collapse at a parkade in Vancouver, B.C., Friday, July 15, 2022. Crews at the site of a partial building collapse in east Vancouver say efforts remain focused on rescue as they search for a missing person more than a day after a small loader dropped through the rooftop parking lot into offices below. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Brieanna Charlebois

VANCOUVER — Emergency crews sifted through debris with the help of a vacuum truck Friday at the site of a partial building collapse, searching for a person believed trapped beneath the rubble.

Trevor Connelly, the assistant deputy chief of operations for Vancouver Fire Rescue Service, said their efforts remain focused on rescue as they looked for the missing person a day after a small loader fell through the rooftop parking lot into offices below.

Firefighters rescued eight people on Thursday night, including two with unspecified injuries, from an area of the building where escape was cut off when the collapse happened.

Connelly said a vacuum truck was brought in to suction away dirt that fell into the hole when the structure collapsed Thursday.

“It’s a very unstable, dangerous situation, painstaking work. Very physical, very tiring. The crews spent the night removing large chunks of concrete in order to get to the bottom of this collapse.”

Connelly could not confirm whether the missing person was still alive, but said crews are “fairly confident” that a person is still buried in the rubble based on eyewitness reports and the location of their cellphone.

He said two search dogs were brought to the scene Friday and were able to identify areas where the person may be.

“We have attempted to try and make contact and we have not had any responses or any noises that indicate a location,” he said. “We will be continually reassessing the safety of the site, the conditions that we’re experiencing, but at this point, our plan is to proceed indefinitely as a rescue operation until we have some good reason not to.”

The cause of the collapse has not yet been determined, Connelly said.

About two dozen rescue workers were at the scene Friday, including firefighters and members of Vancouver’s Heavy Urban Search and Rescue crew, a specialized team that responds to major structural collapses.

The area, which includes a major street beside the damaged building, remained closed Friday. The SkyTrain line that runs on the opposite site of the building continued its schedule. 

A view from the SkyTrain shows the large hole in the roof, with piles of debris below spilling out onto the building’s parking lot.

Three cars parked at the front building are covered in building material, crumpled siding and cement.

Work crews can be seen digging through the rubble and guiding the vacuum.

Asst. Chief Brad Hesse said about six to eight crew members at a time are working in the so-called collapse zone.

“We have not located the missing worker at this time, but we are making much better progress now that we have the vacuum truck in place to remove most of the loose dirt,” he said in an interview late Friday afternoon.

Earlier Friday, Hesse said the collapse occurred when a bobcat-style loader was moving one of two large piles of soil in the rooftop parking lot when the loader, the soil and a chunk of pavement approximately three metres by four metres fell into the offices below.

Cranes had to be brought in to lift the larger pieces of the debris away from the site of the collapse.

Police, members of Vancouver’s engineering department and officials from WorkSafeBC were also at the scene, said Hesse.

WorkSafeBC, the agency that oversees worker safety in the province, said it had launched an investigation into the cause of the collapse.

Connelly said he couldn’t guess how long the search would take.

“The work is extremely, painstakingly slow in an effort to keep everybody safe. It’s a very unstable environment,” he said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 15, 2022.

Brieanna Charlebois, The Canadian Press