Fires Kill Eight Children In Five Days
PETALING JAYA, Malaysia, 20 April 2001 -- The fire that killed three siblings on Wednesday was the fourth fatal blaze in five days and has prompted fire service authorities to call for children to be educated on fire safety and emergency precautions.
Since Saturday, eight children and an adult have perished after being trapped in their blazing homes.
The Fire and Rescue Department's assistant head of operations, Deputy Commissioner Mohd Yusof Mohamad, said all homes should have an emergency plan to help children trapped in such situations.
He said that it was imperative for the many parents leaving children at home while going out to work to ensure that their children knew the telephone numbers of the nearest fire station or police station in the event of an emergency.
'The deaths of the children in the fires are often due to the carelessness of the parents,' he said, noting that there had been many cases of children being locked inside their homes while parents went out to buy groceries nearby.
'This is a classic case of the homes becoming virtual death traps for the children,' he said.
In Wednesday's tragedy, three siblings died when they were trapped on the upper floor of a double-storey link-house which caught fire in Kelana Jaya.
The body of four-year-old Syed Mohd Nur Rahman Al-Idrus was found in one of the rooms. His elder sisters Sharifah Nur Syafiqah, 11, and Sharifah Nurul Shamira, eight, were found unconscious on the balcony.
Neighbours and rescue personnel rushed them to the Kelana Medical Centre, but they were pronounced dead on arrival.
Neighbours who spotted the fire raised the alarm and immediately sought the assistance of passers-by. Some of them attempted to rescue the children, but the flames drove them back.
The parents had left for work and two older siblings, aged 14 and 15, were in school.
Fire and rescue officers reached the scene about 15 minutes after the fire was spotted.
The cause of the fire is being investigated, but neighbours reported hearing a 'soft explosion' downstairs before the blaze, believed to be electrical a short circuit. Source: The Straitstimes Interactive, Singapore
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