Maintenance staff cleaning the parking area around the two destroyed vehicles, which will be towed away. Photo by Roystein Emmor
KUCHING: Christmas shopping at Vivacity Megamall here was interrupted this afternoon after a car caught fire in its multistorey carpark, spreading it to another parked vehicle and causing the mall to be evacuated.
Thanks to the quick action of one of the mall’s security personnel, who only wanted to be known as Mann, the fire was kept under control and the Fire and Rescue Department was alerted to the situation as fast as possible.
Mann was among the first to notice the fire and did his best to extinguish it, together with seven other colleagues.
“We were going about our usual patrol when we saw smoke coming from one of the parking bays at level P4 of the multistorey carpark. We went to have a closer look and saw fire coming from one of the cars,” he told The Borneo Post.
He and his colleagues immediately grabbed the nearest fire extinguishers to put out the fire as best they could, while others called the Fire and Rescue Department (Bomba).
“Bomba came about half an hour later to make sure the fire had been fully extinguished,” he said, as other maintenance staff were busy cleaning up what was left of the fire.
Bomba personnel are currently investigating the cause of the fire, which was believed to have started from a black Proton Gen 2, spreading to the Perodua Myvi parked next to it.
Both cars were destroyed in the blaze.
Rahmat Mohammad.
Camera shop staff member Rahmat Mohammad said the fire was put out very quickly and that he and another staff member almost did not realise that there was an emergency taking place.
“I was on my way to the toilet when I noticed the crowd of shoppers exiting the mall in droves. I could barely hear the announcement on the mall’s audio system, so I did not know what was going on,” he said.
It was only when he heard some of the shoppers saying “kereta hangus” (a car is on fire) that he realised what the emergency was.
“I went back to the shop, and the management told us to close up and evacuate as soon as possible, as all customers had been evacuated.
“But barely 15 minuted later the audio system announced that the emergency has been settled and business would resume as usual,” he said.
Rahmat said the emergency was dealt with pretty quickly that the mall was not even evacuated entirely.
Amizan Wajidin
A staff at a smartphone shop Amizan Wajidin said there was no chaos when the customers were told to evacuate.
“Everybody was calm. Customers were told to evacuate before us staff. So we stayed to make sure our store was secured,” he said.
The fire alarm was ringing, and the mall management in the mall’s audio system told operators to close shop and evacuate only after all customers have been evacuated, he said.
“Then after about 15 minutes, the mall’s audio system announced that everything was in order and we were cleared to resume business as usual.
“We did not even need to evacuate,” said Amizan.