SCDF officers had to lie on their side and drill through concrete slabs in Myanmar quake rescue (2025)

SINGAPORE - Rescuers from the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) had to operate in tight spaces to get to victims of the earthquake in Myanmar, even drilling through concrete slabs while lying on their side to get to one man.

They were giving more details of their efforts after a 7.7-magnitude earthquake struck near Mandalay, the country’s second-largest city, on March 28.

SCDF deployed an 80-strong contingent and four search caninesthe day after the disaster. It was Operation Lionheart’s 21st deployment since 1990.

In an interview with The Straits Times on April 21, officers described how they rescued a victim from a three-storey building which had partially collapsed, just hours after arriving in Naypyitaw, Myanmar’s capital, on March 30.

Search and rescue operations began at about 1am in Zabuthiri Township in Naypyitaw.

The SCDF team entered the collapsed building from its rear. They had to squeeze through a narrow passageway to locate the victim, who was about 10 to 15m away from the entry point.

To reach him, the team had to go on all fours to squeeze through fallen concrete slabs.

As a safety measure, a stack of wooden blocks was used to support the slabs above the rescuers to prevent them from shifting.

Space was tight, and SCDF rescuers, who were armed with a battery-operated drill and a hydraulic cutter, had to lie on their side to break a concrete slab trapping the man.

During the eight-hour operation, the officers took turns entering the collapsed structure to drill the concrete slab and cut the reinforced steel bars.

Warrant Officer One (WO1) Mohamed Azlan Mohamed said: “The main challenge we had was the small space.

“There were times when I had to use my hands to move my legs to get into a good position.”

The 38-year-old rescue section commander was stationed behind another rescuer, who was drilling the concrete slabs.

WO1 Azlan had to watch the concrete slabs closely – it was his job to pull his fellow rescuer out if the slabs collapsed.

“The building was like a house of cards. We didn’t want to disturb the integrity of the structure, so we started off small by cutting the reinforcement bars (inside the concrete),” he said.

WO1 Co Richard Bryan Ang, 35, said it was difficult to manoeuvre the 10.4kg drill.

He added: “When we’re drilling downwards, we can put our body weight into it. But because we were lying down, we had to use our arm strength to push the drill into the concrete.

“It was a lot of mental and physical endurance. But we all knew that if we continued drilling, the concrete slab would slowly chip off, and we would have enough space to pull the victim out.”

Besides drilling, the team had to constantly communicate with the victim to ensure his safety. They also offered him water through a tube and gave him a torchlight.

Said WO1 Azlan: “The man understood simple English, so we kept reassuring him by telling him, ‘Don’t worry, we are here’.”

“I could hear from his voice that he was scared, since he had been trapped for several hours, so we told him that he was going to be okay.

“Hearing him respond made us more determined to bring him out as quickly as possible, even though we were in a very uncomfortable position.”

The victim, who looked to be in his 30s, suffered a foot injury and was in tears as he was pulled out of the rubble.

He thanked the rescue team profusely before he was taken to a local hospital for medical treatment.

After breaking the concrete slab, it took another 15 minutes for SCDF officers to guide him out of the collapsed building.

They had to support him as he crawled through the narrow walkway. There was no room for a stretcher. “There was a feeling of joy when we saw him come out of the building,” said WO1 Ang.

Before returning to Singapore on April 8, SCDF gave one of the hydraulic cutters to the Myanmar Fire Services Department as a symbol of friendship, along with medical supplies.

During the 11-day deployment, the Operation Lionheart contingent searched 26 sites and rendered medical assistance to some 130 locals at two medical outposts, one at a monastery in Pyokkon and another near a hotel in Dhakhinna Thiri Township.

Both are in Naypyitaw.

The outposts were set up to provide treatment for minor ailments and injuries, after the local hospitals were damaged by the earthquake.

Captain Sarvananthan Rajragavan, a full-time NSman, was one of the doctors deployed at the medical outposts.

The 27-year-old, who has just graduated, said the resilience of the locals touched him.

“I don’t think I’ve seen anything like that before, the sense of community and the sense of solidarity among the people – despite all that they went through, they still shared whatever they had.”

“I saw one person ferrying people to and from the medical outpost. They weren’t his friends or family, but he did it so they could receive medical treatment,” he said.

WO1 Azlan recounted the tenacity of the displaced families, who were sitting by the road with their belongings.

He said: “I think they were waiting to be relocated. They accepted what had happened, and they were going on with their lives.

“Some of them were cooking on the roadside with a small stove, while their children were playing among themselves.

“At times like these, they could still remain positive. I think this reveals a lot about them.”

• Claudia Tan is a journalist at The Straits Times covering the crime and court beat.

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