A poor elderly couple had to spend the first day of 2018 stuck in an elevator for over two hours — a frightening ordeal that only ended after they were extricated by rescuers through a small gap.
In case you were wondering, this happened in Yishun. ’Nuff said.
Channel NewsAsia reported that 79-year-old Amy Yong and her 81-year-old husband Michael Yong were returning to their flat on the second floor of Block 636A Yishun Street 61 when the lift malfunctioned at about 10am. The were stranded between the first and second floors of the block.
Workers from the Nee Soon Town Council arrived within 12 minutes after the couple rang the emergency button — the two didn’t have their phones on them at the time of the incident. The town council responders pried open the lift doors but were not able to get the lift to work. The lift maintenance company, Sigma, was alerted and personnel were sent to the scene. They too were unable to get the lift to restart due to some problem with “spare parts”, according to CNA.
Elderly couple trapped in lift for more than 2 hours in Yishun https://t.co/uMGQVUmFX8 pic.twitter.com/d4N90cw905
— Channel NewsAsia (@ChannelNewsAsia) January 1, 2018
By 11:50am, the elderly couple’s daughter decided to just call the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) instead. SCDF officers managed to enter the lift through a gap on the second floor and hoisted the trapped duo out sometime after 12:40pm. Though the Yongs were assessed by paramedics to have elevated blood pressure, they declined to be taken to hospital.
The elderly couple’s daughter praised the SCDF for their “good work” and raised the issue of the block’s poor lift conditions to CNA.
“There are a lot of elderly staying here,” she said. “If the maintenance of the elevator is not working, it’s very bad for them.”
