Victim: 'Screaming someone please help'

AUSTIN (KXAN) - Buried under wood and metal wreckage, Rachel Dolman tried to free herself.

Less than an hour after arriving at the party early Sunday morning at the condo at 4811 E. Oltorf St. , the deck above her fell like the hinge of a door and then tumbled to the ground.

"I was screaming, 'I'm down here, I'm down here. Someone please help,’" Dolman said.

Propping herself up on crutches just a day after doctors released her from the hospital, she told KXAN Austin News about the stampede of other victims that injured her hip and cut her liver so deep she could not get up.

"[I was] seeing the people coming out with bloody heads and bones sticking out,” she said. “Oh, my God. It was terrible."

Dolman was among 26 hurt during the deck collapse. Two of those who escaped were brothers and heard her screams. They rushed to her rescue.

"They came running back in,” said Dolman. “They had gotten out and came back in."

Austin Code Compliance investigators found the deck did not have permits, and now the city is bent on finding the contractor, who could face fines up to $2,000 a day for each of the violations.

"We found three violations concerned with the deck in the back: electrical, building and possibly impervious cover,” said Robert Alvarado, a code compliance investigator. “So once we verify if there are any more, then we’ll move forward at that point."

The deck was not on the city's radar since there was no permit and no one filed a complaint. Some 35 code compliance investigators each handle about 50 complaints at a time, a system the city admits is an overloaded one.

Once he gets out of the hospital himself, condo owner Calvin Wong could also face fines if he does not comply with the city's codes.

Dolman said she wishes he would have done that to start and hates to think what could have happened without those brave brothers.

"I mean, they were in panic,” she said. “They were in flight mode. They just weren't thinking. It was no one's fault. I don't think anyone wanted to step on me or kick me or not help me up. These guys had the sense and kept their wits about them. They're my heroes. They saved my life."

KXAN Austin News spoke with one of those brothers Monday night on the phone, who said he does not think of himself as a hero. He said they were just lucky they made it out so easily and would want someone to save them, if they were the ones trapped.

Dolman has spoken to one of them on the phone but hopes to thank them in person very soon.