Excavator operator still recovering from “horrific” body recovery work in Christchurch.
Del Brooks spent much of his working life on big demolition jobs across Europe – but nothing prepared him for the CTV building body recovery task last year.
Brooks, who this week received an Earthquake Award from the Waimakariri District Council, is still recovering at home in Rangiora with post-traumatic stress, battling anger and a sense of abandonment.
He arrived in New Zealand six years ago from his native Britain, looking for lifestyle change and bringing his specialist skills as a digger operator. But the dream of a cruisy life was shattered on February 22 last year.
“I was working out near the airport and got the call that evening – my machine was being moved to the CTV site. I got there the following morning never expecting to see what I saw. I was instructed to shift the concrete floors around, moving them out of the way so the teams could do body recovery,” he says. “Colleagues called to the site the day before had dealt mainly with the living. They gave me a pat on the back, wished me well and scarpered.”
Brooks says the coping mechanism broke down “very badly”. “It was the first time I’d seen a dead body.”
The task unravelled into a nightmare ordeal working a straight 12 to 14 hours a day from February 23 to March 4 – in the isolating fog of his own private hell.
Read the full, harrowing story here.
