PUTRA HEIGHTS FIRE: MEDIA TO BE TAKEN TO BLAST LOCATION NEXT WEDNESDAY - POLICE

SHAH ALAM, April 23 (Bernama) -- Police will take media practitioners to the location of the explosion and gas pipeline fire in Putra Heights, Subang Jaya next Wednesday.

Selangor police chief Datuk Hussein Omar Khan said the visit is to enable media practitioners to see firsthand the excavation work being carried out at the location by the relevant authorities.

He said in principle, the excavation work has found the gas pipeline that exploded in the incident but due to the unpredictable weather recently, the subsequent process has been disrupted.

“We are experiencing difficulties due to the rainy weather every day this week that has resulted in many work disruptions.

“We will organise a media visit to the area next Wednesday so that the media can see for themselves the work being carried out by the relevant authorities and see how complex the investigation at the scene is," he said at a press conference here today.

On April 18, Hussein was reported to have said that the excavation work was almost complete and that his team expected the initial technical investigation report on the incident to be obtained within a week.

He said the forensic research was being conducted by the police, Malaysian Fire and Rescue Station as well as the Department of Occupational Safey and Health before the initial report was issued.

Hussein said some of the specimens found during the excavation work had been taken by the authorities involved and efforts were ongoing to search for other debris from the explosion that could help identify the cause of the explosion.

The gas pipeline fire occurred on April 1 at 8.10 am, causing the flames to rise to more than 30 metres high with temperatures reaching 1,000 degrees Celsius.The fire took almost eight hours to be completely extinguished.

-- BERNAMA