This truly breaks our hearts 🙁
Earlier this morning (Thursday, 14th September), a blaze broke out at a religious school called Pusat Tahfiz Darul Quran Ittifaqiyah at approximately 5:15am. Unfortunately 25 people, mostly teenage boys, didn’t make out in time and were killed.
Located in Jalan Keramat Ujung, Kuala Lumpur, Shahirman Sharil, who lives close to the school told Free Malaysia Today that he heard screams coming out of the building around 5am. “It was dark, except for the raging fire on the third floor of the school. Along with other people in the neighbourhood, I tried to help the students. Some were already burned. We were just trying to do whatever we can to help them while waiting for the firemen to put out the fire,” he shared.
“The children were desperately trying to escape the flames. There were metal grills which prevented them from exiting the burning building,” Federal Territories Minister Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor was quoted as saying. Due to the fact that there was only one entrance, the raging fire prevented them from escaping.
The City Fire and Rescue Department was alerted around 5:40am. When the fire department officials arrived at the scene, the blaze had already broke out. It took them roughly 25 minutes before they managed to get things under control. “The number of confirmed dead are 23 students and 2 wardens,” Khirudin Drahman, director of Kuala Lumpur’s fire and rescue department told AFP.
“We sympathise with the families. It is one of the worst fires involving so many lives in the capital in recent years. We urgently want the authorities to quickly probe the cause of the deadly fire so that we will be able to prevent future disasters,” said Loga Bala Mohan, the federal territories deputy minister.
https://twitter.com/JulesJulietta/status/908157799095402496
Our deepest condolences to the families of the victims.
Sources: FMT, The Malaysian Insight/ Featured image: Hasnoor Hussain.
