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Published: Saturday September 5, 2009 MYT 11:18:00 AM
Updated: Saturday September 5, 2009 MYT 5:20:09 PM

Seven factory units razed in Ampang (Update)

By STEVEN DANIEL

AMPANG: Seven factory units were destroyed in a pre-dawn fire suspected to be arson near Ampang Industrial Park.

A fire department spokesperson said they received the distress call at 4.37am yesterday and the first of eight fire engines arrived at the scene five minutes later.

“Four fire trucks involving 49 firefighters from Selangor and four more from Kuala Lumpur rushed to the scene and managed to bring the fire under control in 20 minutes.

Initial investigations show that the seven units, among them a car servicing facility, aluminium manufacturing, car-chop shop, and recycling material processing factories may have caught fire simultaneously.

“The forensics team is still looking around for clues on how the fire started but we do not rule out the possibility of arson,” he said adding a rough initial estimate of the losses at around RM1mil.

Meanwhile car repair facility owner Ah Kao, 57, whose factory was razed in the incident said luckily the fire began at the side of his premise and didn’t spread to the back because there were 100 barrels of combustible black oil located in the back.

“If those barrels had caught fire, it would have been catastrophic as the blast may have caused other nearby factories to catch fire,” he said.