PETALING JAYA: They slept barely two hours a day, working through day and night, to search for a stranger who fell into a sinkhole.
When the search and rescue (SAR) mission had to be aborted on Saturday after nine days of painstaking search, these 80 men and women were dejected for not having found the missing 48-year-old Indian national Vijayalaksmi.“They were disheartened.
They had been prepared to descend into the sinkhole again to look for the woman although they were exhausted,” said Kuala Lumpur Fire and Rescue Department deputy director Rozihan Anwar Mamat.
“We were hopeful of finding her. However, that did not happen.”
In an interview with The Star, Rozihan said the team was well aware that the sinkhole case, which happened on Aug 23, made global news and “the world was watching our every move”.
“We put in all our effort and drew up strategies to look for the woman,” said Rozihan, who headed the SAR mission as the forward commander of operations.
His team included specialist divers who went down deep into the sewer tunnels.
Rozihan said the department’s standard operating procedure on SAR prohibits firemen from carrying out high-risk operations for victims who remain missing after 20 hours unless there is proof of life.
However, he said his personnel were determined to find the woman, so they chose to go ahead with the operation.
“Since the water levels were high and currents strong in the sewer lines during the day, we had to wait for them to recede at 2am,” he said.
“Then we had to wait until 4am to search the narrow tunnels before the currents start building up again.
“Only two divers can go in at a time and we took turns every 20 minutes as the tunnels had zero visibility throughout the day and was filled with hazardous fumes.”
The case was a new experience for him and his personnel, Rozihan said.
Besides the determination shown by them, he said it also moved him to see the cooperation among the various agencies in working together to find the woman.
“We had such a great inter-agency cooperation. Everyone came together and played their role. It was very touching. I will always remember this camaraderie,” he said.
Department director-general Datuk Nor Hisham Mohammad told The Star that his personnel were resolute in their search for the woman.
“We gave our best, searching every nook and corner of the tunnels even when danger was lurking beneath the ground.
“It is the first time we had undertaken such huge risks, especially when we had to crawl deep into narrow tunnels. We did our best,” he said.
A homeless man, who witnessed Vijayalaksmi falling into the sinkhole, spoke of how he had cheated death when the ground collapsed as he was among those seated on a concrete bench next to the sinkhole.
He said he was partially inside the hole when the ground collapsed but managed to pull himself up.
“I saw the victim falling down as she screamed. Then there was silence after she fell into an opening at the sewer line,” he said.
The man, who is in his 30s, did not want to be identified but he was captured on a viral video on that fateful day.
“It was a Friday. It happened in the morning. Otherwise, it would have been more crowded in the afternoon with people attending prayers at a nearby mosque using this route.
“Moreover, the homeless would be gathering here as there are volunteers from soup kitchens who come at noon to serve food,” he said.
