8th Explosion Victim Rescued From Rubble

By Marshall Zelingerm.zelinger@krdo.com

PUEBLO – Buried under rubble where the Branch Inn once stood, an 8th victim was rescued around 6:30 p.m.Thursday night. An explosion leveled the Branch Inn Thursday afternoon, killing one, injuring seven others and leaving one part of historic Pueblo looking like a disaster area. Firefighters had done an initial search of the rubble and found nothing, when they got new information.

“We got a tip from a witness that they saw an elderly gentleman walk in to the branch in just before the explosion,” says Pueblo Fire Chief Chris Riley. “At least what it allowed us to do was have a general idea where we thought the victim might be.

Firefighters went back and searched a second time, looking for the unknown victim.

“We kept digging and the firefighters heard a sound, they heard somebody in there in the rubble,” says Riley. “That piece of information allowed us to make a very strategic and pin-point rescue effort in a very very large rubble.”

Brick-by-brick, firefighters moved the wreckage to reach the elderly victim. Two-dozen firefighters then formed an assembly line to move the man on a backboard from the rubble to an ambulance.

“I was able to witness the firefighters do an absolutely heroic and extraordinary rescue effort of pulling this guy out of a very dangerous, precarious situation,” says Riley. “We’re talking over four hours of being buried in that rubble. He’s severely injured, however he is talking.”

The man was taken by ambulance to Parkview Medical Center. Seven total victims were taken to Parkview, one died during the afternoon. One other victim was taken to St. Mary-Corwin Hospital in fair condition.

As of late Thursday night, no one else was reported missing, but firefighters continued to search the rubble.

“We’re going to take that pile apart brick-by-brick, piece-by-piece, to make sure that nobody is left in there,” says Riley.