Builder goes through 'live' floodwaters to help unconscious woman

Builder Dan Rogers, seen here with his daughter, was using his skills in the suburb of Glendowie before he carried out the rescue. Photo / Supplied

By RNZ

An Auckland man disregarded his own safety to wade through floodwaters with a live electric current to rescue a woman who had suffered an electric shock.

Builder Dan Rogers was boarding up a shop in the suburb of Glendowie yesterday during the downpour that hit Auckland.

He told Morning Report he was outside a shop on Roberta Avenue where water was coming up to the headlight level of cars.

All the shops nearby were flooded when he heard a man calling out for help.

"He was saying 'help help, we need an ambulance, can't go in there, there's an electric current running through the water..."

Rogers waded through the water to the man, who told him that inside the cafe there was a woman on the ground who had been electrocuted.

The man advised Rogers not to go in but "instinct took over" and he believed that if he did receive a big shock he would "jump onto a table".

"I figured I'm pretty fit and I figured in my head I'd be okay.

Dan Rogers believed his adrenaline would protect him in the waters that were 'live'. Photo / Supplied

"I'd have the adrenaline in my body and I'd be okay. I had my rubber boots on, I had my gloves on... I could feel the [electric] current on my shins as I waded in."

In the kitchen he could see another man with a woman who seemed to be unconscious.

Rogers managed to establish that the switchboard was located at the back of the cafe and turned all the switches off.

He carried her out of the premises to another nearby shop which wasn't flooded.

Rogers feared that the woman had already died.

"I lay her in the recovery position and saw that she was actually breathing."

Other people arrived with blankets and in about 10 to 15 minutes the ambulance arrived.

He tried to talk to the woman but she was not responding to anything and seemed to be in a coma.

Three men, including Rogers, carried her to the ambulance because the street outside was still flooded.

The man in the cafe who Rogers believes is the owner thanked him for saving the woman's life and said that he (the owner) believed she was going to be okay.