Desperate bid to save trapped woman

A woman feared trapped inside a townhouse that collapsed due to a suspected gas explosion has been identified, as rescuers battle to reach her.

The building in Whalan, around 45 kilometres west of Sydney’s CBD, exploded just before 1pm on Saturday and Jasmin Mhey is the only person left unaccounted for.

Firefighters rushed to the site of the incident at Waikanda Crescent which injured six people and destroyed multiple nearby units. The explosion was so strong it was felt 40 kilometres away.

Five people were evacuated, including two women aged in their 60s and 70s. A dog was also rescued.

Nurse Jasmin Mhey, 30, remains unaccounted for and it’s understood she was visiting her mother, Mercy, in the Whalan townhouse before the incident, The Daily Telegraph reported.

Resident Evelyn said she sat with Mercy during the search effort and she talked of her daughter.

“She was soaking wet, so I got her a warm jumper and a blanket,” Evelyn said. “She kept saying, ‘My daughter’s strong, my daughter’s strong,’ so I kept telling her to keep believing that and have faith in that.

“She broke out crying a couple of times.”

In the months prior to the explosion Jasmin’s mother had been complaining of a gas smell that was throughout the government housing and even into the streets. Other residents had also noticed the smell.

Another neighbour, Anna Jean, said Mercy she was “distraught” when she returned to find the building had exploded and repeated; “I told them about the gas, I told them”.

While local woman Amy told The Daily Telegraph that Mercy had tried to contact her daughter.

“She kept dialling her daughter’s number, but there was nothing,” Amy said.

“Then she told the police her daughter was meant to be at Volcano’s steak restaurant at Wetherill Park … so they police rang there and they said she hadn’t turned up, so we knew she must be under there.”

A staff member at Volcano’s reportedly confirmed Jasmin has not turned up to her shift which started at 3pm.

On Saturday there were tapping noises – a sign of life – however they have since stopped.

Bob Howard, another neighbour, said he ran out to assist but the overpowering gas smell stopped him so he called out to people “We have to get out of here, that gas smell is so strong, we could all go”.

Firefighters are using search cameras to peer under the rubble and concrete slabs, looking for possible survivors, and deploying acoustic monitoring devices in a bid to capture any sounds under the ruins. Police have run a detection dog over the debris.

Despite the earlier reports of tapping sounds being heard, there haven’t been any signs of human life detected.

Firefighters have also been dealing with a number of small spot fires under sections of the rubble.

Fire and Rescue NSW Commissioner Jeremy Fewtrell returned to the scene today to inspect rescue efforts and said it’s still possible to find someone alive.

“The bottom line is there’s been the total destruction of a large building … and it’s the job of the rescuers to work their way through that rubble to try to find spaces in that collapsed area where someone might have been caught,” Commissioner Fewtrell said.

“The operators who work in this field have a range of different skillets, from their firefighting experience, their hazardous materials experience or from a specialist operations paramedic perspective as well.

“Those rescuers combing that area have an understanding of the natures of structural collapse, the different ways that buildings fall under stress, and it gives them an indication of the types of places to look for survivors.

“This is still within the window for someone to survive,” the Commissioner explained, “You might recall in 1997, we had the Thredbo landslide … it was almost a week when Stuart Diver was rescued … hence the effort to really be exploring the building as thoroughly as we can.”