Do not speculate on CityOne Megamall blast — MPP chief
Lo Khere Chiang
KUCHING: Padawan Municipal Council (MPP) chairman Lo Khere Chiang says the blast incident at CityOne Megamall here was unexpected and unintentional and therefore one should not speculate because nobody knows what caused the explosion yet until the relevant authorities come out with the report.
“Explosion can occur anywhere, even on the road, in the coffee shop or in the kitchen of a home even when no renovation or testing takes place.
“An old gas tank in the store can explode; an expired fire extinguisher at home also can explode when exposed to heat,” said Lo who is a civil engineer.
The Batu Kitang assemblyman added that accidents do happen anywhere, somewhere, whether there is renovation or no renovation, commissioning and testing.
While he concurred that major renovation work should not be done during operating hours, unfortunate incidents can happen even when there is no work done in the building.
He said for example, there was an incident where the roof of a shopping mall collapsed when there was no renovation or testing work being carried during that time.
He said this when asked if there is a need for the local council to have a by-law requiring renovation, testing and commissioning to be carried out during no operating hours in light of the recent explosion in CityOne Megamall which claimed three lives and several others injured.
Lo said what happened at CityOne was an explosion, an accident, adding that whether there is a by-law or no by-law accident does happen.
While he described the incident as very sad and unfortunate, it was not right to blame anybody for the incident.
He believed works at the building were carried out according to the standard operation procedure, as surely the owner of the building have got its electrical engineer, mechanical engineer, civil engineer or even chemical engineer to oversee the renovation works.
“I have full trust in our professionals that they will not compromise on safety factor and design.
“But like what I have said, it was an accident, which can happen anywhere, somewhere, even when there is no human activity,” he said.
Lo said the incident at CityOne Megamall should be a stark reminder to all – the industry players, the manufacturers, contractors and professionals that they must not compromise on safety and design.
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