2 HOUR ORDEAL

Two people trapped in Anthony Saru elevator, renewed calls for NPF to fix the damaged building

BY MAVIS N PODOKOLO

Two people went through a harrowing experience, trapped in the Anthony Saru elevator for nearly two hours.

The incident occurred at around midday, yesterday.

Other tenants managed to provide water for the trapped persons, and firefighters later came and freed them.

This follows the chronic power outages across the capital, Honiara, and failure of the National Provident Fund (NPF) to fix the Anthony Saru building, which was damaged by last year’s November 7.1 earthquake, while allowing tenants to continue using the building.

Tenants had repeatedly made media calls for the NPF to fix the damages, with the Fund responding that it was in the process of doing so.

Seven months later, this is the first reported incident of such.

Tenants are reiterating their call for the NPF to address the problem.

One of the trapped persons spoke to Island Sun on condition of anonymity, saying it was quite a traumatic experience.

“Having trapped inside the lifter for 154 minutes is not a good feeling I’d say.

“I felt a combination of fear and panic as well this is because when the power went off the lifter is too dark and you can’t see a thing, to make it worse there is no good air to inhale. Not a good experience,” the person said.

The person adds by calling on NPF, which owns the building to find ways to address the matter or have in place an emergency plan for the Anthony Saru building.

“I call on the responsible authority to please address this matter and also having an emergency plan for this building would be really good so when this same case happen in the future people can be rescued as quickly as possible rather than repeating this same case as today,” the person said.

Island Sun Newspaper is seeking comments from SINPF.

A senior personnel of SINPF had told the paper yesterday that the Fund is aware of the issue and will release an official statement on this matter soon.

Meanwhile, Chief Executive Officer Acting for Solomon Power Martin Sam confirmed in a recent press conference that four of the nine generators of Solomon Power are currently out of service but his team are trying their best to ensure this issue is solved.

Mr Sam said only five generators are currently up and running.

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