Hotel New World Disaster

Singapore is well known for its efficiency in everything including safety. You get electricity without breakdown and you can drink water from the tap since a long time ago. These are things we take for granted. I didn't know it until I served National Service as a Policeman and when I was posted for a year to the airport. I get many passengers at the then Paya Lebar Airport asking me if they could drink direct from the tap. I thought it strange and when I said "yes, of course" they were all very puzzled and yet amazed. I still think that Singaporeans still take things for granted.

I have read about buildings that collapsed like a pack of cards in other countries as well but never in Singapore. So, like all Singaporeans, we got the rudest shock of our lives when we got news that the Hotel New World had collapsed! It was 15 March 1986. It came down like a pack of cards exactly at 11.15am.

This was Singapore's first civil disaster post war. It was a building owned by Lian Yak Realty and it was built between 1969 and 1971 with six levels including a basement car park. ICB (Industrial Commercial Bank) occupied the ground floor, a night club on the second and the remaining 3-6 storeys had 67 rooms.

In 1974 there were concerns regarding the safety of the building when cracks appeared on the walls of some rooms. Prior to the collapse the building then known as New Serangoon Hotel made headlines in 1975 when a toxic carbon monoxide leak occurred and left 35 people unconscious.

Before, I started doing this research at the Ang Mo Kio Library, I was a little late, held back by an hour's thunder storm so I stopped by at Blk. 727 for lunch. The curry rice stall was pretty good. Hmmm, a surprise.

I was enlisted to be in the Police Force for National Service rather than in the Army and was a little disappointed. My consolation was that after watching so many police story on TV, I was geared up but the truth is that the police does so much more work that what you see on television. After completing my NS, I did several reserve service in the police force before they suddenly transferred me to a new set up called "Civil Defence". It was so new during our first few in-camps trainings, we were trained like fireman, we nearly died. Just squatting down rolling the fire hose (like duck-walk) and carrying casualties over six-foot obstacles sure can kill.

It was later, when we got the expertise from if I remember correctly Sweden and Israel that we got our perspective and organization right. One very important thing we learned was that during a war or a disaster, most people died not from direct hit but through profuse bleeding or injuries without being attended to. We were trained as fire fighters and rescuers and the setting was one of high rise rescue given the nature of our habitat. We tried sliding down special chutes from 5 floors up and all that. I was already in civilian life and started work as a young man struggling in the corporate world - so busy with so many things to learn when I received a call that fateful day, to report for duty as a recalled NS man. I responded to a nation's call. This was the report and findings presented to the President of Singapore by the committee who investigated the disaster. 

This is the site map of the disaster, Hotel New World is Lian Yak Building. I reported for duty somewhere nearby and in the vicinity but can't remember the exact spot. We took turns and did shift work for a total of 5-6 days. On the first day, when I got to the site of the disaster, reality sank in. It looked insurmountable.

Top Police, Army, Civil Defence advisers were in the crisis management team in rescue operations.

The place was a complete mess. I was deployed where Mustafa Center is today on some days and on other days was directly on the site itself. There were fumes and dust everywhere. The outpouring of help was immense and it made me proud to be a Singaporean. Hotels, churches, temples and charitable organizations sent food and drinks. There were so much and so many types of food but there was a complete absence of appetite but you have to eat to replenish your energy. That is all. The stench of death was very strong as after a few days, some have died. It was a mammoth yet delicate task as the debris were huge and are piled up randomly on top of one another and can easily collapsed further anytime and worse, there was a race against time to find people who were trapped but alive.

Rescue personnel were not trained or equipped to deal with a disaster of such magnitude or nature. Initial cut and lift method were not working and became ineffective but we were blessed. Tunneling experts from Britain, Ireland and Japan were here to build our MRT and they lent us their expertise so tunneling method was introduced. Some of these experts even volunteered to get in to the tunnels for rescue operations. When you have tunnelled through and need to go deeper and are somewhere in between underneath the debris and you hear ramblings, it means there were movements in the debris which could collapse anytime. That was how delicate the job was.

Doctors who volunteered encountered great problems and when they found people alive and injured but could not get them out yet and they have to improvised on the spot while lying in a prone position to provide treatment. These people embraced the dangers and gave their lives, my awesome respects and salute to them.

Later, specialized equipment were brought in like ultra-high pressure water machine that can blast through concrete without causing vibration and life detector devices and infrared imagers. These were tired and worn out army boys who were just like our civil defence brothers including me. We will make do with 40 winks. I saw dead people or...parts of them. I was closed by when someone unearthed what appeared to be the foot of an woman from ankle down with a gold chain still intact. Officers were around to identify and tag the bodies or body parts. 

The next day, one of us dug out a chunk of human flesh from the torso and I was tasked with seeking a stretcher to place it but someone else got a stretcher first and carried it away, I could still see that the chunk of flesh was wobbly.

Every time, when someone was brought out alive, we cheered and cried. It was such a wonderful feeling, that someone was saved, came out alive and could be treated and go back to his or her family. I wouldn't wish this to happen even to my enemies, imagine being trapped under debris not knowing if you could survived. 

I was trying very hard to have my dinner next day close to the site when an army captain rushed by shouted for help to get a stretcher and pointed to the location. When we got there, there were other teams already there. We have just dug out some debris when we found a dead man in a crouched position, completely covered in ashes and dust.  

Some of my friends in the Airforce were also on standby. Helicopters were all ready and in wait at the nearby Farrer Park soccer fields. Whenever some one was rescued, they would be rushed there and the helicopters would rushed them to the hospitals. Some people may think that no one knows when you are cheating. There was a businessman, if I am not wrong with his mistress in one of the rooms at Hotel New World that day. When it collapsed, they were both brought down stark naked and survived the ordeal. Not sure if he survived back home.

Rescue operations were finally called off on 19 March @ 0615 hours after many checks that there were no more survivors. The Death Toll was: 33 dead. Rescued: 17. I was told that those who were crazy 4-D punters struck pay dirt when they bought 3310 and their interpretation was that 33 people died in a hole. That was a strange things some people would do. Much later, stories became urban legends when they talked about walking past the site at night and they could always hear people crying. This was the first and very old uniform which has since undergone several changes and upgrades. The Civil Defence became more and better equipped and well-trained today with the most sophisticated equipment. We have our DART team, an equivalent of the army or police commandos for daring rescues. We have also trained the civil defence of neighbouring countries. When I went back to reserve service, they began to have tunnels in the camp for training. 

This kind of thing must never ever happen again. I have seen death at close quarters from a young age. I was there at the disaster site.  It is something that you don't forget. When you see death, it can change your views of life. Life is precarious. Why are people everywhere still fighting over the little meaningless things? 

After allowing those distant memories to flood in, it was time to have a snack. I found this stall at the coffee shop that made cakes which tasted oh so home-made. The Brownie and Orange cake were very good.

As I munched on the cakes, I was just happy that you and I never have to go through such a harrowing experience ever.