20140106 Malaysia 60 Shops Razed In Fire At Duty Free Zone Complex In Rantau Panjang
Malaysia Jan 06 2014 “Stores”
Dead : dead 0 or unknown Burnout : 30 to 69 Injured : injured 0 or unknown
60 Shops Razed In Fire At Duty Free Zone Complex In Rantau Panjang
Updated: 2014-01-07-12:00
RANTAU PANJANG, Jan 7 (Bernama) — About 60 shop units in the Duty Free Zone Complex in Rantau Panjang, which is famous among tourists, were destroyed in a fire at about 11.30 last night.
Kelantan Fire and Rescue Department operations assistant director, Abdul Jalil Ishak said fire engines with 33 firemen rushed to the scene and managed to bring the fire under control within an hour.
“The Fire Brigade was forced to get water from the nearby Sungai Golok when there was insufficient water from a fire hydrant nearby,” he told reporters at the scene here, last night.
Abdul Jalil said all the shops, operating for more than 20 years in the tax free zone, were built of wooden structures and located side by side causing the fire to spread quickly.
“Furthermore, most of the shops sold clothings and blankets causing the fire to spread rapidly.”
No casualties were reported and the cause of the fire and the loss incurred were still under investigation, he added.
There are more than 300 shops selling a variety of goods in the complex which is a tourist attraction and filled with shoppers at weekends and school holidays.
A Bernama survey found that on average traders found out that their shops were burnt within half an hour of the fire starting.
A trader Suhaida Shafie, 25, said she lost about RM50,000 when all the clothing and blankets in her shop were destroyed.
“My family has been doing business here for over 20 years and I am sad to see our own shop totally destroyed,” she said.
Most of the traders were at a loss as they have been running these shops for many years and this was their only source of income.
Websource：bernama
http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v7/newsindex.php?id=1005634