Premier Dalton McGuinty has instructed officials to resume rescue efforts at a partially collapsed mall in Elliot Lake, Ont., to determine if it's possible to reach any victims "without endangering our rescuers."
In a statement issued late Monday, McGuinty said he has instructed Emergency Management Ontario and the Heavy Urban Search and Rescue Team to explore other options, "including the use of equipment to dismantle the building from the exterior."
"I believe we owe it to the families waiting for word of their loved ones to leave no stone unturned," McGuinty said. "We owe that to the people of Elliot Lake too. Ontarians expect nothing less."
Just hours earlier, officials announced they would have to stop search-and-rescue efforts because the site was deemed too unstable and dangerous.
Bill Neadles of the Heavy Urban Search and Rescue Team earlier told reporters that the building "could fall at any time without notice."
The announcement drew an angry rebuke from local residents who demanded to know why rescuers would leave the site after possible signs of life were noticed among the rubble earlier Monday.
"This is a mining town…you never left a man underground," one woman said through tears after officials said they would have to stop the rescue mission.
"If there is a possibility that there is one person living, we cannot let them die," she said.
Dozens of people had gathered outside Elliot Lake city hall to protest and the managers of the mall threatened to file an injunction in court to force rescue teams to continue digging.
But late Monday, Elliot Lake Mayor Rick Hamilton said the rescue mission would resume with "full approval" from the province of Ontario. The owners of the Algo Centre Mall also told the rescue crews to "proceed by any means necessary," Hamilton said.
So far, officials have only been able to confirm one death.
The precise number of people missing and unaccounted for has fluctuated since a section of roof at the Algo Centre Mall collapsed on Saturday. Officials said two people in particular are believed to be dead or trapped in the wreckage because their vehicles were parked at the mall and they are still unaccounted for.
Needles said the integrity of the building has greatly deteriorated since Saturday.
He said a large chunk of concrete has put so much pressure on the wreckage that the mall's support beams are starting to bend. A staircase and an escalator inside the mall have also separated from the rest of the structure, creating a "very severe situation," Needles said.
"It's amazing that (the building) hasn't collapsed already," he said.
"Our team is certainly not happy…nobody is happy that we have to stop work," he added.
Earlier Monday, Needles said crews were using specialized equipment to detect whether anyone was still trapped, alive, among the debris.
"They were able to determine that there was signs of life from the one same location that we had indicated yesterday," Needles said, describing how the machine was able to detect breathing within the rubble at approximately 4 a.m. Monday morning.
When asked about the person confirmed dead in the rubble, Needles said officials haven't yet been able to determine his or her identity.
During the day, crews had managed to remove the damaged I-beam that collapsed within the mall, handing it over to investigators from the provincial Ministry of Labour.
Several large pieces of broken concrete were also removed overnight.
The cave-in took out two floors of the building and left an impact area of approximately 40 by 80 feet. The collapse also triggered a gas leak.
In the midst of its grief, the community of Elliot Lake has also been buzzing about the building's integrity before its roof crashed collapsed.
The Canadian Press reports that the popular shopping centre built in the early 1980s passed a structural evaluation last May. Work was also being done to prevent leaks in the roof, a source with property-owner Eastwood Mall Inc. told CP.
Besides the one confirmed fatality, 22 others were injured when the section of the two-storey mall's roof that served as a parking area suddenly collapsed.
Elliot Lake is a city of 11,300 in northeast Ontario's Algoma District, located approximately 160 kilometres west of Sudbury.
With files from The Canadian Press
