PETALING JAYA, March 10 — The Fire and Rescue Department is trying to reconnect with a woman they rescued as a baby during the Highland Towers tragedy in December 1993.
The survivor, Nur Hamidah, who is now 24, is a midwife with the Indonesian National Nurses Association and residing in Jakarta.
The department's wish to meet up with her started after she posted a photo on Facebook of herself on a stretcher after she was plucked from the rubble by a firefighter identified as Norizan Saad.
The photo was shared by the department on its Facebook page, and a message that went with the photo said a senior officer of the department, identified as Taufiq, had contacted her father.
“Hopefully the rescuer and the survivor can meet again,” the post said. Norizan now works in the department's corporate communication section.
At the same time, Nur Hamidah's Facebook friend, Firdaus Dhani, had also encouraged her to visit Malaysia and to meet the person who saved her.
“The tragic incident in 1993 was not easy but now there is a way to meet your rescuer in 2016,” said Firdaus.
The post on Nur Hamidah on the Fire and Rescue Department's Facebook page went viral within 17 hours.
It has been shared 605 times and gained more than 4,800 likes.
Attempts to contact Norizan and Nur Hamidah yesterday were unsuccessful.
On December 11, 1993, Block One of the Highland Towers in Taman Hillview, Ulu Kelang, collapsed.
The tragedy caused the death of 48 people and resulted in a complete evacuation of the remaining two blocks because of safety concerns.
The cause of the collapse was identified as an overload of a drainage system used to divert a small stream known as East Creek. The stream was diverted as part of the towers’ construction.
In 1991, the hill- top behind the towers was cleared of trees and land-covering plants for the Bukit Antarabangsa Development Project leading to severe soil erosion.
