Highland Towers Tragedy

Background and History

Highland Towers is luxurious condominium of 12-floor building. Once notorious in the 1980s and early 1990s for the wealthy people Constructed between 1975 and 1978 Behind this condominium, there is one very steep slope

 There are stream flowed across the upper part of the slope from Metrolux land One of the most tragic tragedies in Malaysia. (Occured in 11/12/93)

Chronology of Events
1994 Kuala Lumpur Regional Office approved the applications of the proposed projects. 1974 Construction of the building started. 1978 Building block 1 completed and has been occupied by residents. 1981 Building block 2 completed and has been occupied by residents.

 1986 - Building block 3 completed and has been occupied by residents. 1992 On July 1st, Ampang Jaya Municipal Council(MPAJ) was established and given responsibilty to handle the project. 1992 On October, water began to flow down the hill slopes due to the flooding caused by the burst pipes. 1993 MPAJ giving out CF for construction of basement car park

 1993 On November, serious crack were found by the residents on the road near the apartment and widen leading to the towers. 1993
On December 11, Block 1 of Highland Towers collapses at 1.35 pm. 124 members of Federal reserve unit(FRU) and about 30 military personnel and engineers deployed for search and rescue. Hundreds of policemen, firemen, KL city hall(DBKL) rescue team, Malaysian Red Cresent Councils Volunteers

 Rescue team spot. A maid of the residents at level 7, Umi Rashidah, 22, and her daughter Nur Hamidah Najib, 18 months are found Shizue Nakajima, 50, a japanese woman was also pulled from the debris but pronounced dead at 12 midnight in KL Hospital(HKL). Prime Minister and Deputy Prime minister and many cabinet minister visit the site.

1993 December 12, Residents of Block B and C ordered to vacate their home. Rescue team from Singapore, France, and Japan arrived in Malaysia to help.

 1993 December 13,

A team from France with two rescue dogs join the operation. Using heartbeat detectors technology to search. A committee Cabinet is established specifically to deal with the tragedy investigation

1993 December 15 22
Police confirm that 48 bodies were recovered from the Highland Towers after 1 week rescue operation

Cause of the tragedy

Construction of buldings on the edge of the hill is not suitable. Building apaerment on the hillside against is also against with the Land Conservation Act 1960. Inconsistency between the Land Conservation Act with the Environment Quality Act 1974

 Surface water flow that occurs over this accident has caused soil erosion on hill slopes. Mud flood has caused the road around the apartment cracked. This lead unstable base structure of that place.