Philippine Rescuers Pull Three From Collapse in Angeles City — Collapsed Building Angeles Philippines News
collapsed building angeles philippines news: Rescuers pulled three people from the rubble on Monday after an unfinished nine-story hotel collapsed in Angeles City, Philippines. The death toll rose to four, and 17 people remained missing as firefighters and police kept digging through the debris.
Angeles City Rescue Effort
Two of the men pulled out were dead. Emergency personnel tried to revive one trapped man in an ambulance near the rubble, but they eventually gave up, and authorities said 26 workers were either rescued or managed to run out of the collapsing building.
Carmelo Lazatin, the Angeles City mayor, said, “My best hope is that we can rescue more people alive” and “We don’t want to give the families of the trapped workers any bad news.”
Concrete Slabs In Pampanga
Lazatin said rescuers were moving carefully because huge slabs of concrete were being held up precariously by aluminum scaffolding. Hundreds of rescuers worked for hours around the unstable structure, trying to reach trapped men in the scorching summer heat and, in one case, to provide water and medicine intravenously.
The building collapsed after a fierce thunderstorm with a loud crashing sound. One of the three people pulled out on Monday was unidentified and was not on the list of the 17 missing, while the fourth dead victim was a Malaysian tourist trapped in a budget inn partly hit by debris from the collapsed building. Another guest at the inn was injured but managed to dash out.
Investigation In Clark Freeport Zone
National police chief Gen. Jose Melencio Nartatez Jr. said his force will support an ongoing investigation into the cause of the incident and possible violations of safety and building regulations. The collapse hit an unfinished hotel under construction in Angeles City in Pampanga Province, within the former Clark Air Base area that became the Clark Freeport Zone after the base closed in the early 1990s.
Lea Mendoza Casilao, a relative of a trapped worker, said while waiting near the rubble, “I’m losing hope because of what I see — slow rescue work.” Lazatin said rescue efforts would not be shifted to a body retrieval operation, leaving teams still working the same unstable site a day after the collapse.
