Three Kansas City fire companies were among the first to respond to the building collapse in Clinton on Monday.
KMBC's Bev Chapman reported that members of Rescue 9, Rescue 1 and Rescue 31 were sent to help dig out survivors trapped in the Elks Lodge.
"It was a very difficult technical rescue," Battalion Chief Todd Ackerson said.
Long before the trucks pulled in, the men inside were ordering wood for the job ahead. It covered the courthouse lawn when they arrived in Clinton.
"We had lean-to collapses, pancake collapses," Ackerson said. "The whole time we were in there, the building was moving on us. We had to create safe zones for our people to move in and tunnel toward the victims."
Chapman reported that the crews had just about everything they could want on their new rescue support rig, from cameras to find victims in the rubble to saws and shovels.
"It was textbook. Better than I thought it would be," Ackerson said.
With dangling bricks and a leaning firewall, crews used rope to pull six survivors to safety. They tunneled into the first floor to reach the last three survivors.
"It was amazing more people weren't trapped in the building," Ackerson said.
Kansas City was joined by fire and rescue crews from across Missouri, including Central Jackson County, Whiteman Air Force Base and Missouri Task Force One.
Copyright 2006 by TheKansasCityChannel.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
