Elderly couple's lucky escape after drill rig falls onto home

An elderly couple have avoided serious injury after a 33-tonne drill rig fell onto their home in Melbourne’s north-west this afternoon.

An attempt was made to load the Caterpillar rig onto a semi-trailer Woodland Street, Strathmore, about 3.00pm, the Metropolitan Fire Brigade said in a statement to 9News. 

The rig’s boom crashed into the roof of a single-storey brick home in the suburban suburb.

“It’s incredible the amount of damage that it’s done… it’s very lucky no-one was injured,” Tim Wadsworth from the MFB told 9News.

The elderly couple, Stan and wife Avis, were inside the residence at the time and suffered shock, the MFB said.

The driver of the rig escaped without injury.

“It could have been a lot worse, but we're very very lucky that the two elderly residents are very very shaken, and understandably so, but otherwise fine,” Mr Wadsworth said.

MFB firefighters are now working to remove the rig from the property.

Nearby residents said they'd made repeated complaints about the site's safety.

“I wouldn’t say I’m too surprised because it didn’t look too secure, and we’ve been to the council a couple of time,” neighbour Isaac Warburton said.

The accident bears a resemblance to the scene in Altona two weeks ago, when a crane toppled onto a house while attempting to lift a spa.

WorkSafe and the local council Building Surveyor have arrived at the scene. They are making inquiries.