by Theleaders-Online | June 11, 2019 9:33 am
KUANTAN, June 11 (Bernama) — Seven foreign workers managed to flee to safety from their first-floor hostel when fire gutted three double-storey shophouses in Jalan Mahkota here yesterday.
One of the workers, Faizal Kamaruddin, 29, from India, said they escaped through the back staircase after being alerted of the fire, which broke out at 1.43 am.
“I was awoken by the heat and commotion. I saw smoke and heard my colleagues yelling at us to quickly run. We fled without taking our personal belongings,” Faizal, who has been working here for seven years, told reporters today.
The three shophouses gutted are a sundry shop, a textile shop and an unoccupied shoplot. No casualties were reported.
Textile shop owner Jameel Sayed Sultan, 51, whose house is about 10 km from his shop, said a worker of a nearby restaurant informed him of the fire at 2 am.
“I rushed to the shop but could not salvage anything because firemen were then putting out the fire. There were new textile and carpet stocks for Hari Raya inside but I could not enter the shop yet because the fire department was conducting investigation.
“I was told the fire affected 30 percent of my shop, and I hope the damage is not big,” he said.
The Pahang Fire and Rescue Department, in a statement today, said three fire engines with three officers and 16 men were despatched to the scene.
Firemen took about 40 minutes to put out the blaze and the cause of the fire is still being investigated, it said.
Source URL: https://theleaders-online.com/seven-foreign-workers-escape-unhurt-in-shophouse-fire/
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