Police tapes convey officers’ emotions after quake struck

‘‘There’s buildings down everywhere here. We need as many units as possible.’’

The Christchurch police officer who made that plea for help was at the corner of Kilmore and Colombo streets soon after last February’s earthquake struck, telling communications centre staff in the central police station of the devastation around her.

Police have released about seven minutes of dispatch tapes recorded during the February 22, 2011, disaster.

The audiotapes reveal initial observations from officers around Christchurch as they discovered the extent of the damage and injuries.

One officer reported the scene at the collapsed Canter- bury Television building on Madras St: ‘‘We have got major damage. We have building collapses with people inside. We’ve got whole threefour storey complexes completely demolished.’’

The officer described evacuating people to nearby Latimer Square, and asked for an emergency trauma site to be established for treating the many who were injured.

‘‘We’re gonna need fire here now. We’ve got a building on fire now as well.’’

In City Mall another officer said: ‘‘There’s people trapped in Cashel Mall . . . they need ambulances.’’

Southern Communications Centre manager Inspector Kieren Kortegast said the tapes were released to help ‘‘set some of the scene’’.

‘‘[For] those who’ve lived through it, we know how difficult it was. These [tapes] can convey the true emotion.’’

Phones and computers at the communications centre were not disrupted by the quake, and power was provided by a generator.

He did not realise until later that staff in the rest of the building had evacuated.

Kortegast said staff ‘‘did an absolutely amazing job’’ to stay in the Hereford St building and continue taking emergency calls and dispatching instructions.

‘‘It was very matter-of-fact. We couldn’t afford to lose that control. Lives were saved because of it and because our systems carried on,’’ he said.

‘‘It was bloody exciting in here and that’s probably putting it roughly, with all these aftershocks.’’