Entertainment

Lost in a burning building, slipped off a mountain: Local celebs share their spine-chilling near-fatal accidents


Memories from near-fatal accidents are likely to stick with us, even after a prolonged period of time. 

At least, that seems to be the case from the latest episode of the Mediacorp show Liar Liar Pants on Fire.

The programme features two hosts, Rao Zijie and Kimberly Wang, and three weekly guests and they have to each share a story on the week’s theme. However, one of them would be lying, and everyone has to guess who it is.

The latest episode is on their near-fatal experiences, and some of the stories will get your heart thumping.

Black smoke everywhere

Zijie’s close shave with death occurred when he was a firefighter during National Service. He set the scene by explaining that he and his team were called in to put out a big fire. 

His section, consisting of him and three other firefighters, was greeted with black smoke when they arrived on location.

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“As visibility was very low, we had to use the rope from our Breathing Apparatus (BA) set,” Zijie said.

The rope helps leave a trail so that the team can exit from where they entered. 

Unfortunately, Zijie soon lost sight of his section mates. He recalled: “I couldn’t even see my fingers in front of me.” 

He became worried and his breathing got erratic. To make things worse, the alarm for his oxygen tank rang, which means his oxygen supply was going to run out soon – five minutes to be exact.

“I was panicking and got really terrified. I started thinking about my mother and sister,” he said.

With the clock ticking, Zijie caught sight of a door and immediately reached out to open it, managing to escape in the nick of time.

Taxi ride gone wrong

Local comedian Dasa Dharamahsena – also known as Das – also shared his experience, which happened on the roads. He said: “I feel a lot of anxiety whenever I recount this story, even though this happened 10 years ago.”

He had a friend’s birthday party to attend that day and took a cab as he was running late. 

“After I boarded the taxi and told the driver my destination, I sat back and listened to my music,” Das added.

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Little did he know that memories of the taxi ride would scar him till today.

Halfway through the trip, the vehicle halted suddenly as a secondary school student jaywalked in front of the cab in an attempt to catch a bus.

A few seconds later, Das saw the same student darting back to pick up her hat, which she had dropped on the road. The cab driver had little time to react. Realising that he could not brake in time, the cab driver quickly swerved and the vehicle crashed into a street lamp. 

“At that time, I felt like I had gone deaf as I couldn’t hear anything,” Das said. 

Both he and the driver were in complete shock at what had happened.

Seeing that the taxi driver took a while longer to gather himself, Das went to the nearby coffee shop to get the man a drink.

Being the superstitious person that he is, Das chose not to attend his friend’s party and headed home instead.  

Overseas hiking trip 

Kimberly began her anecdote with a sheepish disclaimer.

“After hearing the first few stories, I think my story is actually not very exciting at all,” the former child actress said.

Her story took place in Malaysia. She was there with three other child hosts, as well as their mothers, to film for a kids’ show, and the particular episode was centred around hiking up a mountain. 

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“The hiking trail isn’t like what we have at Bukit Timah Hill where you could just walk,” she mentioned.

While there were stairs early on, Kimberly recounted it was largely dirt trails where she sometimes had to use both her hands to navigate through. 

While making her way along a narrow ledge, she held on to the protruding roots along the way, and unfortunately, the rain added to the risk of a slip-up. 

“I was crossing halfway when I suddenly lost my footing and slipped. Luckily, I was holding on to a root so I didn’t fall off,” Kimberly said.

After managing to pull herself back up, she looked down and realised how high up she was.

If she fell all the way down, it would have been a complete disaster and a rescue team would be required to locate her, she said.

amierul@asiaone.com



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