SCDF officers break into Yishun flat to save worker
The sales director was out for work yesterday afternoon when she got a call from her son.
He told her that the police had contacted him to say that their flat in Yishun Ring Road had to be forcibly entered into for a rescue operation and that he was unsure if it was a hoax.
It was not.
The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) officers entered the sixth-storey unit at Block 451 about noon to rescue a worker trapped in a gondola outside their flat.
The 50-year-old resident, who wanted to be known only as Mrs Lee, rushed back to her flat to see what had happened.
She discovered her main door and gate were damaged.
She also found that the window frame in her son's room had been removed and the bed frame damaged as well.
Mrs Lee told The New Paper yesterday: "I was quite shocked when I first found out what had happened. The police said they had to force the door because there was a life-threatening incident and because there was nobody at home."
The SCDF confirmed yesterday that its officers had forcibly entered the flat to rescue the worker.
Two workers were in the gondola, which was between the fifth and sixth storeys, and were carrying out facade cleaning work when it malfunctioned.
The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) told TNP that the gondola tilted to one side and was unable to be lowered.
The SCDF said one worker was saved using an aerial appliance. The other worker was rescued by SCDF officers through the window of the unit on the sixth storey.
The SCDF said a worker was taken to Khoo Teck Puat Hospital with minor injuries, while the other worker was uninjured.
The Sembawang Town Council said the workers were hired by its contractor, Choice Decor Co-operative Society, to carry out repair and redecoration work.
MOM is investigating the incident.
A spokesman for the Sembawang Town Council said the contractor will bear the full cost for the replacement of the door and the metal gate of the unit.
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