GEORGE TOWN: A man who scaled the edge of an apartment block's airwell seven floors up to rescue a 78-year-old resident stuck on a window ledge has revealed how he did it.
"I live on Level Nine. Along with other neighbours, we saw the senior citizen in trouble on the ledge.
"While trying to climb out, his right foot was stuck in his window grill while his left foot was on the ledge," he told The Star on Sunday (Aug 23).
Recounting the incident that took place on Saturday (Aug 22) at about 1.30pm in Jelutong here, the man said he knew firemen had been alerted but saw that the senior citizen was becoming fatigued by his awkward posture in a precarious position.
"I saw him exhausted. He hung on to his window grill with both hands but I could see his left leg couldn't support his weight any more and he was starting to look like he was dangling more and more out the window," he said.
Realising the senior citizen could not wait for firemen to arrive, the man clambered over the airwell's parapet and shimmied along the apartment block's concrete cross beam, taking advantage of the plentiful handholds of the window grills of neighbouring units.
Fortunately, the window ledge was about 1m wide, giving him plenty of room to free the senior citizen's stuck right foot.
"He was so exhausted. Since firemen were just minutes away, I told him to sit and rest and I accompanied him on the ledge," he said.
He said the senior citizen told him his house key had somehow been broken, which was why the latter could not leave his apartment, leading him to attempt to climb out the window.
He said in the commotion, another neighbour who had the backup key to the elderly man's home was alerted and had opened the door in time for firemen to come to the rescue.
Previous reports had erroneously stated that the incident occurred on Level 14.
