A tradesman has died and another remained in a critical condition on Wednesday afternoon after brick walls collapsed on them in separate incidents at building sites in Sydney's north-west.
Wild winds wreaked havoc across the city on Wednesday with walls collapsing in Carlingford and Kellyville and power lines coming down in other suburbs.
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Worker killed after wall collapse
A man dies after a brick wall collapsed at a building site in Sydney's north-west following wild winds. Vision courtesy Seven News Melbourne
Emergency services were called to a building site in Talinga Street, Carlingford, just before 10am following reports people were trapped under rubble.
Construction workers managed to pull a man, aged 30, from the rubble yet he had gone into cardiac arrest.
Paramedics performed CPR on the man but he died, NSW Ambulance said.
The man's workmates said he was a Vietnamese father-of-four who worked as a carpenter.
He was one of several workers building a two-storey duplex with double brick walls on the property owned by a young couple.
Construction worker Binh Nguyen told the ABC he travelled to work with the man every day.
He pulled the man from the rubble but the man had suffered injuries that "looked scary".
"I called and no answer," he said.
One nearby resident said she head "a massive bang" when the wall came down.
"Just a massive thud, I thought [it was] an earthquake or something," she said.
Jenny Birbara, who lives nearby, said she heard the crash but assumed it was just normal noise from the construction site - until she heard sirens.
Racing outside she saw a worker trying to help the trapped man. "He was screaming for help and no one was helping," she told AAP.
Mario Calderone, who lives near the site, said he rushed to the scene when when he heard the wall collapse.
"The building fell and the construction fell because of the wind . . . and a few of the builders were on the site," he said.
"I just heard this big bang and was trying to work out what it was and I rushed down here."
Another tradesman was critically injured when a double brick wall under construction fell on him at a building site in Kellyville.
The 19-year-old was pulled unconscious by co-workers from a pile of rubble shortly before 10am.
The man was treated for head and facial injuries at the scene by crews from CareFlight and NSW Ambulance.
He was taken to Westmead Hospital in a critical condition, CareFlight said.
SafeWork NSW has sent inspectors to both sites.
"Businesses needed to consider all hazards when working in strong winds so that workers and the community aren't injured," said SafeWork NSW executive director Peter Dunphy in a statement.
Meanwhile, the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) slammed SafeWork NSW for not regulating the industry.
"These days they (SafeWork) don't go out and inspect sites unless there's been an accident," CFMEU state secretary Brian Parker said.
"SafeWork is completely under resourced, they've taken more of a political line to be a self-regulator rather than a tough cop on the beat."
The Bureau of Meteorology released a severe weather warning for damaging winds just after 10.30am, cautioning people in the Illawarra, parts of the South Coast, Central Tablelands, Southern Tablelands and Snowy Mountains.
Strong winds were recorded across Sydney with gusts of 80km/h at Kurnell, 76km/h on Sydney Harbour and 70km/h at Sydney Airport. Winds of up to 90km/h are forecast for Wednesday night.
The wind brought down powerlines and trees across a wide area with the South Coast line closed temporarily on Wednesday morning to remove a fallen tree at Austinmer.
On the Central Coast, about 1700 homes and business lost power in the suburbs of Bensville, Kincumber, Empire Bay, Macmasters Beach, Copacabana and Davistown
#BREAKING One man dead, one injured as strong winds cause walls to collapse at two Sydney construction sites https://t.co/TOqUPaQp6B #7News pic.twitter.com/bIlpg3Ki3p
— 7News Yahoo7 (@Y7News) August 16, 2017