Victims of the Highland Towers tragedy recollect painful experience 25 years on.
Ex-Highland Towers residents remember those who died 25 years ago
AMPANG: It has been 25 years since the collapse of Highland Towers but the flashback to those years is still as vivid for many former residents.
“It was a very close-knit community. Everyone was very happy here,” recalled former resident Dr Iain Gray, 72.
Living at Highland Towers was like being in a vertical kampung, said Gray, who was among those who turned up at the site yesterday with the original poster that was created six months after the tragedy to commemorate those who lost their lives.
On Dec 11, 1993, one of the three Highland Towers blocks collapsed, killing 48 in the nation’s worst housing tragedy.
The earth had given way after 10 days of rainfall, which caused a landslide and toppled the block.
Residents of the other two blocks were evacuated.
An engineer by training, Gray had pitched in to help the survivors. He was part of the rescue team for the full 12 days.
When asked yesterday about the possibility that the site would be turned into a recreational park, Gray said it would be a way to honour those who died as well as give back to the community.
“The people of Taman Hillview opened their doors to all the rescuers and former residents. Their compounds became the rescue operation centres and even for triage.
“The place still looks the same,” he said.
Another former resident Chan Keng Fook, 61, said there had been many good and not-so-positive stories that emerged in the aftermath of the tragedy.
“I remember it like it was yesterday,” he said.
Chan, who was also the Highland Towers Residents Committee secretary, was referring to the rescue and subsequent death of Japanese national Shizue Nakajima, and 14-month-old Nur Hamidah Nadjib and her mother Umi Rashidah Khoruman who were both pulled out of the rubble and survived.
“A lot of people want to move on as it was a very painful experience. They want to put it behind them. Some remember, some want to forget,” he said.
The former Tower Two resident said his family still remembered the moment Tower One fell.
“My wife, two children and my mother were on the balcony and saw the block topple. It was only when someone shouted ‘run’ that they ran out of the apartment,” he said.
He said that the tragedy should not be written off and that similar mistakes must not be repeated.
The families of those who perished during the collapse of Tower One chose not to visit the site to mark its 25th anniversary yesterday.
In August, Housing and Local Government Minister Zuraida Kamaruddin said the site where the two towers currently stand would be turned into a recreational park after they were demolished as the area was not suitable for any other structure.