TWO women are now homeless as a result of the collapse of their two-storey dwelling at First Street, Campbellville, around noon on Wednesday.

According to initial reports given to the fire service by neighbours, the 65-year-old occupant of the home, Florence Barker may have been trapped in the rubble. However, during the process of sorting through the rubble, it was confirmed that the woman was in fact safe at the home of a relative.

One of the neighbours said that the house collapsed “in the wink of an eye,” stating that although it was expected because the house was old and had been leaning for some time, no one could have predicted that it would have happened when it did.

Divisional Fire Officer with responsibility for Operations, Gregory Wickham, spoke to reporters at the scene, saying, “We received a call that a structure had collapsed and two persons were said to be in the structure.

“On arrival, those first responders, they began searching manually and then we managed to get the aid of an equipment from a private contractor to remove some of the overburden; and when that overburden was being removed, we got a phone call that the individual, was not in the structure, but [was] with some relative,” Wickham said.