Police are treating the scene of a “confronting” house explosion in Sydney as a rescue operation as they continue searching for a woman feared to be in the rubble.
Emergency services were called to Waikanda Crescent in Whalan, near Mount Druitt, just before 1pm on Saturday after residents in surrounding streets heard a loud explosion.
Two women — a woman in her 60s and a woman in her 70s who uses a wheelchair — were rescued from the collapsed home.
They were among five people who sustained minor injuries and were taken to hospitals in St George and Hawkesbury but have since been released.
Emergency services personnel have been working overnight to search for the woman who they believe could still be alive.
A fire is still burning underneath the house.
It is not known what caused the blast, but it is believed to be gas related.
“Those efforts will continue, and they will continue until we locate a person, or until we can substantively say there is no person in the area that has been searched,” NSW Superintendent Trent King said.
“This is a very confronting scene for all emergency personnel working in there at the moment.”
The efforts of emergency crews have been hampered by heavy rain overnight and a gas leak.
‘Well within window’ of survival
NSW Search and Rescue Commissioner Jeremy Fewtrell said there had been “total destruction” of the building but said it was still “well within the window for someone to survive”.
“There have been no further indications of any sort of noises or anything like that,” he said.
“In 1997 we had the Thredbo landslide, it was in the winter time, and it was almost a week before Stuart Diver was rescued.
“It is still within a window of survivability and hence the focus of effort [is] to really explore the building as thoroughly as we can.”
He said there had been no further tapping noises recorded after they were initially heard on Saturday.
“Some of those reports of tapping were probably a little bit unconfirmed yesterday, but it’s a key part of the operational process to be tuned in for noises,” he said.
Emergency services are using specialist listening equipment to monitor for sounds.
Specialist rescue teams on scene
Police, Fire and Rescue and ambulance crews are on the scene in Whalan and working in a “chain” to remove debris.
“We have had human chains of firefighters working throughout the night in the pouring rain,” Commissioner Fewtrell said.
Engineers and sniffer dogs have also been assisting.
“Last night we had a detection dog run over the scene… unfortunately there was no indications, but all stops are being pulled out and we are doing everything we can,” Commissioner Fewtrell said.
Commissioner Fewtrell said the Search and Rescue teams working on the site were highly experienced and were often deployed internationally.
“We’ve had a number of deployments, most recently to Türkiye last year,” he said.
Investigation in to explosion ongoing
Commissioner Fewtrell would not speculate on what caused the explosion but confirmed there had been a gas leak at the site which hampered rescue efforts.
“The focus for the foreseeable future is going to be on the rescue operation, but obviously once that is concluded a key part of the investigation will be looking at the cause,” Commissioner Fewtrell said.
“The scene will be forensically examined by fire investigators and by police forensics officers to assist enquiries by detectives.
“At this stage though we are just focusing on the rescue.”
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