A Yahoo News Singapore exclusive by Nicholas Yong and Safhras Khan. This is the last of a three-part series to mark the 30th anniversary of the Hotel New World disaster. Read part I and part II here. Video by Andre He and Jeremy Ho

Thirty years after she was pulled from the wreckage of the Hotel New World collapse, Jerina Tan Oi Ling was finally ready to meet the man who rescued her.

On 15 March, 1986, Tan was working as a hotel receptionist in the six-storey building when it collapsed. Trapped in the debris for almost eight hours, rescuers were on the verge of amputating the teenager’s right leg to free her.

Then a man crawled into the darkness, released her leg and pulled her out. Tan was one of 17 survivors, and the first to be brought out alive from the ruins.

When Yahoo News Singapore first contacted her, Tan, 49, had only one question, “Did you find the rescuer who saved me?”

“She looked so scared and was sobbing quietly. But I reassured her that I would help her.”

Former fireman Ali Ismail

The rescuer

View photos Meeting at last. PHOTO: Andre He/Yahoo News Singapore More

Ali Ismail, 56, spent 12 years with the now-defunct Singapore Fire Service (SFS). A firefighter at Central Fire Station, he was among the first responders at the scene of the disaster. When he arrived, members of the public told him about a girl who was trapped in the debris.

Looking for a way to get to her, Ali and a colleague knocked a small hole in a fallen wall. Dragging himself in, he could see a figure amidst the collapsed beams and walls. “A plank and some Yellow Pages books were pinning her right leg, while her left leg was pinned down by a dead body,” he recalled.

“She looked so scared and was sobbing quietly. But I reassured her that I would help her.”

The long road to recovery

View photos Tan with husband Simon Si on their wedding day in 1988. He has been her “pillar of strength”, said Tan. Photo courtesy of Jerina Tan. More

In the aftermath of the rescue, Tan had sustained injuries to her spine, arm, leg and foot. She spent three and a half months in hospital, immobilised in traction. She had to learn to walk again, said Tan, and could not work for a year.

Today, the physical wounds have largely healed. But the emotional toll of the experience has left many scars. It started while she was in hospital: Every time Tan fell asleep, she would have nightmares of her five colleagues who perished.

“It’s really too fast loh. You just drop down, you don’t know what’s happening. You don’t know whether it’s real life, or you’re dreaming.”

- Hotel New World survivor Jerina Tan

The mother of three did not dare to board a plane for a decade, and still does not go on long haul flights. She also has a phobia of elevators, and sometimes struggles with irrational fears, such as imagining highways or buildings collapsing on her. Tan even cancelled plans to travel to Taiwan following the recent earthquake.

“For quite a period, when I was (feeling) down, I would think: Better if they had not saved me. Better to be gone, because I’m afraid of everything,” said Tan, who also dislikes being alone.

A shared trauma

Haunted by the events of 1986, Ali also experienced recurring memories of the event and a particular phobia.

“There is this sound and smell in a basement car park that reminds me of the incident. It makes me very nervous. I can’t explain it but if I have to park at the basement, I’ll do it quickly and make a fast exit,” said Ali.

Searching for each other

View photos

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