GAS PIPELINE BLAZE: ONG FAMILY GRATEFUL TO BE ALIVE DESPITE HEAVY LOSSES

By Thivyamalini Ramalu

PUTRAJAYA, April 3 (Bernama) -- In the blink of an eye, a peaceful Tuesday morning quickly turned into chaos for Ong Yaw Kern and his three children when an explosion ripped through their neighbourhood, caused by a gas pipeline blaze in Putra Heights, Subang Jaya. 

“It was about 8 am, I was in my room and my children were asleep. At first, I thought it was an earthquake and I heard a very loud explosion. Before I could react, a big rock (caused by the explosion) fell in front of me,” Yaw Kern recalled, his voice choked with emotion.

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Amid the chaos, his first thought was to ensure his family's safety and salvage important documents as fast as he could.

“I told my kids to stay put in one corner of the house, grabbed the important papers I needed and waited for the rocks to stop falling before moving them to a safer place,” the 51-year-old accountant told Bernama when met at the Putrajaya Hospital here today.

Yaw Kern and his children - Jing Ren (son), 15; Jing Xuan (daughter), 13; and Jing Shen (son), 11 -  who all suffered second-degree burns on their legs, were at the hospital for wound cleaning.

The family’s home, which had stood as a place of comfort for the past decade, was destroyed as it was the closest unit to the explosion, located just 50 metres away.

Despite an estimated loss of RM2 million, including the house, personal belongings and various types of equipment, Yaw Kern remains thankful and hopeful that they will be able to rebuild what has been lost.

“It's devastating. We have lost everything and it’s hard to describe. Heartbreaking, but we are lucky to be alive after the horrific incident. That is all that matters,” he said, adding that his wife was away on a hike on that day.

Now staying in a budget hotel, he added that their next step is to find a house or an apartment to stay and start afresh.

Meanwhile, the eldest of three siblings, Jing Ren shared that he felt a tremor and thought an earthquake had struck.

“But when I looked out the window, it (the blaze) looked so bright and I knew something was wrong. I went to my brother and sister, who looked confused and did not know what to do.

“Thankfully, our dad was at home. He told us to go downstairs but we couldn’t go outside because it was so hot. Once the flames died down, we climbed into our neighbour’s house and were evacuated without any serious injuries,” said the Form Three student of Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan USJ 13.

Jing Ren, his siblings and their father were among those who received initial treatment from Health Ministry personnel at the Sri Maha Kaliamman Temple before being sent to Putrajaya Hospital.

On Tuesday, Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas) confirmed that the fire occurred at the main pipeline owned by Petronas Gas Bhd (PGB).

The fire, which broke out at 8.10 am, took almost eight hours to be fully extinguished and resulted in a crater approximately 9.8 metres deep and 21 by 24 metres in size.

-- BERNAMA