By Jeff Hampton
A senior police officer has taken a shot at Urban Search and Rescue's approach at the devastated CTV building in Christchurch.
He told a coroner's inquest into the deaths of eight foreigners who survived the collapse but died before being rescued, that one of USAR's chiefs hindered efforts because of over-concern about health and safety.
Detective sergeant Rex Barnett's been in the force almost 40 years, but he's never dealt with anything on the scale of the February quake.
“There were destroyed buildings everywhere, utter chaos,” he said.
But he became frustrated while helping later with the rescue effort at the CTV building. He felt USAR hindered work police and civilian contractors wanted to do with heavy machinery.
“Any attempts to remove the fallen concrete beams etc were vetoed by [a member of] USAR who appeared to be overwhelmed by occupational health and safety concerns and preoccupied with their role.”
Police have asked the fire service to identify the person.
The inquest is investigating the deaths of eight foreign language students, who're known to have survived the quake but died in the rubble.
Earlier, fellow officer Sgt Mike Brooklands, who'd taken charge of police there, said he was anxious for the fire service to get there.
“To be sitting there watching a fire build and not being able to do anything about it, of course I was frustrated,” Mr Brooklands said.
The next month he wrote a report called 'Things to be Learnt', and today lawyer Richard Raymond read an excerpt to the court.
“If I could have fire service at the CTV site early with more tankers, deceased persons who were removed in the first hours who were severely burnt could have possibly had their lives saved.”
These issues are sensitive for the fire service whose legal team at one stage indicated to the court it would seek to suppress the names of most fire service personnel. They later abandoned the idea.
The first fire service witness is due to give evidence tomorrow. There'll be a lot of interest in how long they took to get there, and who was in charge at the site.
3 News