BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Argentine firefighters found signs of life Wednesday as they risked their own, searching through a huge pile of rubble, all that was left of a 10-story apartment building destroyed by a gas explosion that killed 10 people, injured dozens and left 13 unaccounted for.
Two other towers, in front of and behind the collapsed pile, also were heavily damaged by Tuesday's blast and fire and were danger of collapse during the rescue effort, said Marcos Escajadillo, the provincial security secretary in the city of Rosario.
With heavy equipment blocked by the towers that remain standing, firefighters were mostly working by hand, using a sensitive listening device and body-sniffing dogs to try to reach victims thought to be trapped two stories underground, he said.
"We have some possibilities in the second basement, and that's where, with much difficulty, we have been able to reach. We're trying to work without making a sound or creating vibrations that could provoke a collapse of the other buildings," Escajadillo told a news conference.
Meanwhile, a Litoral Gas company repairman and his assistant, who were working on the building's gas system moments before the blast, were in custody Wednesday as investigators studied company records and gathered testimony pointing to a potential negligence case.
Judge Juan Carlos Curto says one gas repairman fled the scene while the other tried to warn people moments before the blast, which injured dozens and damaged buildings for blocks around in Argentina's third-largest city.
Residents of the building said they had been complaining for weeks that natural gas wasn't reaching their stoves and water tanks, and the repairmen were in the building Tuesday trying to fix the problem, the judge said.
"This isn't something that just happened yesterday, but rather it had been coming with days of interventions by Litoral Gas and its repairmen," Curto told reporters.
"One of the two fled, and the other apparently tried, with an exemplary conduct, to stop cars from passing by the building, according to the person who was with them both at the time," the judge added.
The lead repairman, Carlos Osvaldo Garcia, was awaiting questioning on potential charges of criminal negligence, the judge said.
Garcia's lawyer, Hugo Bufarini, asked the judge to provide his client with psychiatric counseling because he's devastated, and said the 20-year veteran should not be singled out.
Rosario's largest newspaper, La Capital, was among many Argentine media organizations that interviewed the building's distraught doorman, identified only as "Pedro," who said he was with the repairmen when it happened.
"It all happened so fast," the doorman said. "I was calling to 'emergencies' (911). I told the repairman that many people would die. He grabbed his things, climbed into the white truck and left."
The doorman said he himself feels to blame for not being able to save lives.
"I didn't have time to tell people to get out. I feel so sorry for not being able to help. I couldn't tell people to get out because they were going to die inside."
