the stupid rescue

here comes the seemingly stupid thing.

I was back from supermarket just now, and when I was near my home, I saw 6 fire engines and 1 ambulance parked beside the neighbouring block. I thought it was a fire, but when I saw the air cushion I knew there's something more to it.

I went back home and looked out from the kitchen. The air cushion was fully set up. Let me tell you what happened during the one hour. Firemen lazing around. Minus the DART (Disaster Assistance and Rescue Team) guys who were seen WALKING up and down the stairs. They went into a room on the 6th floor and peeped out from the kitchen. For a moment I thought the problematic unit is on the 5th floor. (the whole row of windows were closed anyway) So the SCDF (Singapore Civil Defence Force) personnel asked the old lady on the 6th floor to take in all her bamboo sticks. Then they set up a green safety net and a couple of anchor points.

Yawn yawn. I stupidly waited there for more than an hour, hoping to see some actions. (I just wanted to see the DART rappel down, seriously) Finally the ropes were thrown down, and 3 DART members rappeled down. They didn't stop at 5.. they went all the way to 3nd floor.. what the hell. Then I heard some knocking sound, and soon the rescue personnels rappel down to the ground floor. They didn't break in... this is what I think has happened:

DART knocks on the windows: "uncle, are you ok?"
uncle opens windows with sleepy eyes: "har? orh, ok ok"
then SCDF packed up....

This is what I observed: the SCDF people have no sense of urgency. If I wanted to jump it would be so easy to fail to stop me. The ambulance was parked the inner most. So if they really need to evacuate the casualty, all the fire engines would need to move out first before the ambulance could. Unwise. And stupid civilians, one guy parked his car after the fire engine, another stopped in the pathway to kpo, ended up he blocked the fire engines behind him. I really wish I could crush over those 2 cars..

All along I have a very negative impression of the SCDF. There was once the plastic playground behind my block caught fire. The flame was so huge that at 6th floor all my windows were blackened and smoke got into my kitchen. The fire engines only arrived after there was nothing left to be burnt. If only they came earlier, I didn't have to clean my windows. On another occasion, my next door aunty didn't turn off her stove when she went out, and black smoke was rushing out from her toilet windows and corridor windows. The firemen took eons to arrive, couldn't find their way to the unit, and still took their time to shout into the room. Please, we have already shouted in... go do whatever you can do which we can't do. Think they chainsawed her door and took a little walk in her house.

For goodness sake, go and watch the movie 十万火急 and learn from 刘青云. Hong Kong firemen are still the best, at least they have balls to climb pipes and out from windows to save suicidal ppl.