When URBEX goes wrong …
Young woman fights for life after fall
October 21, 2004 – 7:07AM
A young woman is fighting for her life in hospital today after falling down a seven metre hole in a disused power station in inner-city Melbourne.
Police said a security guard had seen two young women in the former CitiPower power station at the corner of Little Bourke Street and Cleve Lane last night and ordered them to leave.
Shortly after the warning one of the women fell down a seven metre hole onto a concrete floor, sustaining extensive head injuries.
The security guard called emergency services about 8.45pm (AEST) and police, fire and ambulance officers rushed to the scene.
Metropolitan Ambulance Service spokesman James Howe said hazardous conditions in the old power station had made the rescue operation difficult.
“It was believed that there was asbestos in the building,” he said.
“As such getting the woman out of the hole was a challenging task.”
Rescue crews had to don protective clothing before entering the site, he said.
The woman was taken to the Royal Melbourne Hospital where she remains in a critical condition.- AAP
The MPS is a well known URBEX haunt, I wonder how much harder it will be to access after this little effort?
“The Melbourne city power station is widely regarded as the best abandoned building in Victoria, it’s a vast complex that covers about half of a city block. The best thing about this place besides the size has to be that is is still relatively intact, most of the original machinery remains much as it was left after the final shutdown in 1985??”[2]
Woman falls into 7m pit in Melbourne
Last Update: Thursday, October 21, 2004. 7:26am (AEST)
A woman is in a critical condition in hospital after falling into a seven-metre hole in Melbourne’s CBD last night.
The woman, aged in her 20s, fell down the hole at an old power substation on the corner of Little Bourke and Spencer Streets.
She was taken to the Royal Melbourne Hospital with extensive head injuries.
Ambulance paramedic Nigel Gould says it took some time to rescue the woman.
“There was an asbestos hazard in the building so paramedics had to retreat and wait for the fire brigade to use their breathing apparatus to bring the patient out to us, which they did and they stabilised the patient,” he said.
Security guard Hassan Mohamed says he asked two women to leave the building just before the fall.
“After 10 minutes, I see a lady coming out from the carpark,” he said. “[She] tells me ‘help me, help me’.
“What’s the problem [I asked] and [she said] ‘my friend is dead’. I go some way inside to the building and I open my torch and I see the lady’s in the floor, maybe six, seven metres.”
LINKS:
[1] Dsankt’s MPS Gallery
[2] Melbourne City Power Station
