This morning in Dahab at 6 am I heard a semi loud crash, followed by a rumble some seconds later. When I look out my balcony I see people running to the hostel Bishbishi just 10 meters away, where I stayed last week before finding an apartment. Remembering my Emergency First Response (EFR) course I did just a few days before, I create a plastic object to be able to safely give mouth-to-mouth and CPR if needed. Then I run down to Bishbishi to see that two connected houses have collapsed.

Out from one of the house a naked guy is walking, covered from top to bottom in stripes of blood. He is telling people his girlfriend is still under the rumble (which I don’t understand how he could manage to get out from). Also he says he can not move one of his legs, as he [is forced to] sit down and relax while half of the crowd starts to support the roof with wooden sticks to push it up.

I tell one guy to call the ambulance and he runs away, but don’t come back. After a short while I see another guy with a phone and asks him if he called the ambulance, which he confirms and I passes on the information to the hurt guy and the guy looking after him.

After a while the girlfriend is able to exit the rumble and they unite. They are helped to the main street where the ambulance arrives 5 minutes later and transports them to the hospital, together with a shivering shocked girl. At the same time their parents, who are up in the Sinai mountains, are notified.

The outcome from this accident (they are all fine and recovering at the hospital) was incredibly lucky and could have been much worse. The feeling of being at the scene just a few days after doing my EFR was a bit unreal, but makes it even more clear how good this course is. It can be done by everybody and is very easy to do. I really recommend everyone to do it, you never know when it comes in need!

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