Five young men, who quickly helped evacuate cinemagoers and tended to two injured women after a ventilation duct fell from the ceiling during a movie screening, were honoured yesterday.
Long-time pals Sebastian Koo, Quek Yew Hern, Edwin Ho, Venkat Raghavan Gowrishankar and Julian Tay, all aged 19, received the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) Community Lifesaver Award at Ang Mo Kio Fire Station.
The men, former classmates at St Gabriel's Secondary School, were watching Tenet at Shaw Theatres at Nex mall when the ventilation duct fell at about 4.45pm on Aug 30.
"My hands were shaking really badly because I was quite shocked about what was happening... but once Sebastian shouted, the rest of us snapped out of our daze," said Mr Tay, a polytechnic student who is interning as a journalist.
The other four are full-time national servicemen.
Mr Koo was the first to call for all moviegoers to evacuate. He found the two injured women outside the cinema hall and conducted an assessment for injuries.
"I was concerned that there were injuries she might have missed or I might have missed. I was periodically checking again and again," he said. Mr Koo is trained in first aid, having been part of the Red Cross Youth in secondary school.
The five men said they were humbled and grateful to receive the award from Colonel Lim Han Chee, commander of the 3rd SCDF Division. Mr Mark Shaw, director at Shaw Organisation, also attended the presentation.
Mr Venkat, who had called for an ambulance that day, said "I feel we just did what we could in the spur of the moment to help out".
Mr Quek said "anyone could have stepped up" and that "it's our duty to always help people".
Mr Shaw said: "Through their quick thinking, cinema patrons were safely evacuated.
"Their actions showed the importance of knowing what to do in an emergency and the difference it could make to save lives."
A written parliamentary reply on Oct 5 said water that had collected in an air-conditioning and mechanical ventilation duct had likely overloaded supporting brackets and caused it to fall. A Building and Construction Authority investigation is expected to be completed by the end of this month.
