There was a severe weather warning out for strong winds in the metropolitan area tonight and I thought that I might get a call-out when the winds hit. I did get a call-out, but it was before the winds hit and in fact the storms by-passed Sydney altogether.

We were called out to secured a collapsed deck and there was an interesting story behind it. The house is owned by an elderly couple. There was an extension on the back on the house (looking like an enclosed veranda rather than a full on extension) and a balcony/deck was above this. The lady got very sick and an ambulance was called. The ambos determined that she had to go to hospital but they couldn’t carry her down the narrow spiral staircase that led to the first floor. They figured they would have to lower her from the first floor deck, and this required the assistance of the police rescue squad.

The cops were getting the gear ready but before they could get the woman out onto the deck the combined weight of six police and the woman’s husband caused the supports of the deck to give way and it collapsed onto the roof of the extension. The husband jarred his back when the deck collapsed and so the ambos had two casualties to deal with.

That was in the day. When the severe storm warning was called, the daughter, who was now looking after the property, feared further damage when the wind picked up. There was actually not much for us to do. It the wind had have picked up enough to blow this deck away there would have been many more things to worry about first.

When one of the council workers in our unit was told about the job, he said he would get the building inspectors out there. From the flimsy supports holding the deck (see picture) I doubt it could have been an approved structure.