Rescuers Looking For Bodies At The Jersey Explosion “Expect To Find More” Bodies

With about 12 people still unaccounted for, rescuers searching the scene of an explosion in Jersey that has already claimed the lives of three people said they “expect to find more” victims.

Chief of Jersey Police; Robin Smith stated that specialized teams will continue their “meticulous and laborious search” of the vicinity in St. Helier and cautioned that it may take “weeks” before investigations are finished.

At around 4 am on Saturday, a blast decimated the three-story Haut du Mont block in Pier Road in the capital of the Channel Islands. The mission is now a “recovery operation” for “around a dozen” missing people, according to the police, and they no longer anticipate finding any survivors.

“We have moved to a recovery stage, it’s a moment to think about the families,” Mr. Smith said during a press conference on Sunday.

“We have deployed family liaison officers to the families; we must be sensitive to their emotions as we begin a meticulous and painstaking search of the debris following the explosion.”

“We are not going to be here for days, we are going to be here for weeks, and it’s important I make that clear. It is not going to happen quickly, it’s going to happen carefully and sensitively,” he added

Although it has not been proven, Mr. Smith said it “seems likely” that the explosion was a gas explosion.

According to Chief Minister Kristina Moore, the tragedy has left Jersey’s larger community “immensely startled and saddened,” and the government has been “overwhelmed” by their “offering of assistance.”

Paul Brown, the chief fire officer for Jersey, stated that something had gone “horribly wrong” and that his department would “cooperate fully” and “transparently” with any inquiries into the explosion’s causes.

Before the explosion, residents had reported smelling gas at the building at 8:36 p.m. on Friday, and firefighters had been called to the scene to conduct an investigation.

To help with the reaction, specialized teams from other regions of the UK have been sent in, including Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.

Thousands of residences on the island are rented out by Andium Homes, a state-owned but independent business, which claims to be concentrating on assisting the estate’s residents.

The gas distributor Island Energy stated that it is coordinating with the fire department to “understand exactly what has happened.”