‘So others may live’ – SARZA Lowveld deployed to George

Monday May 13 marked one week since tragedy struck 75 Victoria Street in the city of George.

The death toll had risen to 30 on Monday. Three more bodies were recovered on Tuesday. Nineteen people are still unaccounted for, in what can only be described as one of the worst disasters to ever hit George, when a multistorey building collapsed.

Rescue efforts continue. Teams from across the country, who are still holding onto hope for a miracle, have managed to save the lives of a number of the estimated 81 people who were in the building at the time of the collapse.

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Among those teams were SARZA Lowveld members Philip Daniel and Pieter Visser. These Lowveld residents and long-time members of SARZA Lowveld spoke with Lowvelder on Tuesday about their deployment to George, the mission and the overall atmosphere of hope at the time to still find more survivors among the rubble, despite it being several days since.

Visser was out running errands and Daniel at his place of work last Tuesday May 7, when they were called in to be deployed. Without hesitation, they both made the necessary arrangements. They caught a flight and arrived in George as the sun was setting.

“My first impression of the site was that it was organised chaos,” said Daniel. “When we got there, the four-storey building was levelled to the ground, and it took me by surprise.”

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“It was difficult for me to think there would be any survivors, because of how bad the whole scene looked,” Visser added.

“There were over 200 people on-site, including multiple rescue teams. Between Tuesday and Sunday, the teams managed to rescue 27 survivors.”

Daniel said the pair didn’t have much time to think about the situation at hand when they arrived and were put straight to work. “We were allocated a team, got down a ladder into a hole and got to work. The area was divided into sections and blocks. We were stationed at the north left corner, block A. There was metal and rebar exposed. When we arrived, the team we were allocated to was busy tunnelling down to a man trapped on floor two. The team worked for about two hours before they managed to get him free and pull him out,” said Daniel.

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“While the team was working on freeing him, he was even holding the light up for us. His body was free, but he was trapped in a small area between 300mm and 500mm high. Only one person at a time was allowed to work to free him, and we needed to get his feet free.”

He said once the man was freed, he was secured and sent for the necessary medical interventions, and then it was on to the next task.
“That was on Tuesday night. We also helped with a number of body recoveries, which we do quite a bit in the Lowveld. Our tasks varied during our time there and included removing rubble and freeing victims.”

The SARZA teams and the other emergency services successfully rescued several individuals, including Gabriel Guambe, who was found alive after 116 hours. The operation involved removing rubble, detecting live scents with K9 units, and using sensitive sound equipment to locate victims.

Initially, the team worked in six-hour shifts, leaving only two hours for rest, but this later increased to eight and then 12 hours. The operation was well structured, with all the necessary equipment and medical facilities on-site, and safety was prioritised. The families of the missing were close by, their voices a constant reminder of the urgency of the operation.

The pair arrived back in the Lowveld on Sunday May 12.

George building collapse figures (as per George Herald):
• Total estimated individuals on-site when the incident occurred: 81
• Rescued and recovered: 62
• Of which deceased: 33 (27 males, six females)
• Currently hospitalised: 12
• Unaccounted for: 19.