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NYPD, FDNY Rescue Trapped Woman After Five Days in Rubble

Port-au-Prince, Haiti - Members of a New York search-and-rescue team have rescued two people trapped in a collapsed grocery store in Haiti. They are continuing to try to rescue three other people who are still trapped in the rubble.

Both victims were removed to a United Nations hospital established at Haiti’s airport, where the girl, about 13, was treated for leg injuries and the man for undetermined injuries.

Deputy Commissioner Paul J. Browne first said Saturday night that the five were trapped on the bottom floor of what was once a three-story grocery store in Port-au-Prince. The store collapsed Tuesday during the earthquake.

Browne says the victims told rescuers that they have survived on food and water from the store. A total of 26 New York City police and fire rescuers worked through the night to try to extricate the victims by painstakingly cutting through concrete debris and shoring up space to safely reach them, using timber cribbing they brought with them from an OEM warehouse in Brooklyn last week.

Sunday morning, freshly rested members of the 80-strong NYPD/FDNY team replaced those who worked through the night on the rescue. They were joined by members of a Florida rescue team.

Members of the search-and-rescue team have also assisted at ground zero and in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Gustav.

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