UPDATED NEWS
CASUALTY CONVEYED TO HOSPITAL FOLLOWING LLANELLI INCIDENT AT NORTHUMBERLAND SEWAGE PUMPING STATION
The West Wales Chronicle and The Llanelli Standard attended the Northumberland Sewage Pumping Station yesterday evening (March 19) which is located in the New Dock area of Llanelli. We followed up as a result of a reported incident after receiving calls from several members of the general public. It was stated that an incident had taken place which involved part of a dismantled crane plummeting onto a construction worker or construction workers at the site we were told.
On arrival at the scene at approximately 19.30pm. Multiple agencies/emergency services were visible and when we approached, gates had been closed to members of the general public including ourselves so the incident could be calmly dealt with.
An eyewitness initially claimed that there had been eight people trapped underground and that she’d been out feeding the birds just on the outskirts of the building site when she’d witnessed part of the crane collapse with earth plummeting onto construction workers.
The witness claimed she’d heard an almighty bang followed by cries of help and that it was just awful to hear. She claimed that the incident had taken place just after 17.30pm yesterday evening.
Many people chose to go live via social media outlet Facebook and the incident was extensively shared.
Mid & West Wales Fire & Rescue Service, Dyfed-Powys Police, the Ambulance Service, Morgan Sindall and Dwr Cymru were contacted immediately for an official statement.
We’ve now received the following official statements from the relevant agencies:
A Welsh Water spokesperson said:
“We are aware of the incident involving one of our contractors which happened at Nothumberland Road in Llanelli late yesterday afternoon.
“Emergency services were immediately called to site and the individual was taken to hospital for assessment.
“We will work with our contractor and the emergency services to fully investigate the cause of the incident”.
The Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service commented:
“On Tuesday, 19/03/2019 at 04:56pm, crews from Llanelli and Pontardawe attended an incident in New Dock, Llanelli, where a male casualty had fallen, approximately, 6 meters down a shaft.
“Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service deployed its Rope Rescue Level 3 Team and Urban Search and Rescue Team to the incident. The Ambulance Service, HART Team and Air Ambulance were also in attendance.
“The casualty was extricated from the shaft by the Rope Rescue Level 3 Team, using a two-way line system and conveyed to hospital.
The Fire Service left the incident at 07:51pm.”
A spokesperson from Dyfed-Powys Police commented:
“Dyfed-Powys Police was informed of an incident in Llanelli at around 7.50pm last night.
Officers attended New Dock Road, where a man had been recovered from a shaft, to provide assistance to emergency service colleagues. The Health and Safety Executive was made aware.”
A spokesperson from the Welsh Ambulance Service commented:
“We received a call at 4:45pm yesterday evening to an incident at the Welsh Water Treatment Plant, New Dock, Llanelli. We responded with four High Alert Response Team vehicles, one air ambulance emergency car and an emergency ambulance, one patient was conveyed to Morriston Hospital, Swansea.”
