Weather News
Matilda Bay Brewery facade collapses, crushing car in Fremantle as strong winds hit WA
By Andrea Mayes, Monday August 14, 2017 - 19:00 EST
A woman has been cut from her car by emergency services after part of the facade of a three-storey building collapsed in North Fremantle during strong winds.
The woman is believed to have been sitting in her car when bricks from the facade of the Matilda Bay Brewing Company fell down, trapping her.
Emergency services workers removed her from the car and she was taken to Royal Perth Hospital in an ambulance.
A St John ambulance spokeswoman said the woman, who is aged in her 30s, has suspected fractures but "was conscious and breathing".
Department of Fire and Emergency Services (DFES) district officer Craig Edmonds said the woman's injuries were serious and she was lucky to be alive.
"She's very lucky, I can't explain how she survived her injuries," he said.
Photographer Mark Evans, who was passing the building shortly after the bricks fell, said he believed gusty winds were to blame.
"The top of the roof facade on the building has come down in really strong winds," he said.
"It's an old, old building, maybe 100 years old, and it looks like the top part has just been blown off."
Isaac witnessed the incident from his nearby office.
"We were just sitting in our office doing a bit of work and just heard this loud scream followed by this thunderous clap and ran out to see what happened and this poor woman has been crushed in her car by the wall," he said.
"They were trying to claw the metal away but that didn't really work, so they had to cut open the door and then she got out and just started walking away, trying to process what had just happened."
State buffeted by strong winds
, bringing damaging winds.
A severe weather warning for damaging winds has been cancelled for the Perth metropolitan area and other parts of south-west WA, but remains in place for areas further east.
- ABC
© ABC
2017
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Weather News
Matilda Bay Brewery facade collapses, crushing car in Fremantle as strong winds hit WA
19:00 EST
A woman has been cut from her car by emergency services after part of the facade of a three-storey building collapsed in North Fremantle during strong winds.
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