KUALA LUMPUR: The Chinese New Year celebration turned into grief for a salesman when his home since childhood was destroyed in a fire at Block 70 of the Sri Sabah flats in Cheras, here, last night.
What was more heartbreaking was that the efforts of the victim, Loo Choon Ming, 39, to extinguish the fire, believed to have started from his neighbour's unit, failed after the fire extinguisher on the 17th floor of the block was said to have malfunctioned.
Loo said only he and his 62-year-old mother were at home when the incident occurred around 8pm as they were watching television.
"At first, I only saw a little smoke but gradually the smoke increased, causing me to rush out of the house to see what was happening.
"Then I saw the fire in the neighbouring house and I tried to help extinguish it. For about 20 minutes, we tried to extinguish the fire by pouring water.
"However, the fire did not go out and we immediately contacted the Fire Department," he said when met at the scene.
When the fire grew bigger, said Loo, his mother and neighbours quickly evacuated by descending the stairs.
"We went down to the 15th floor before using the lift to go to the ground floor.
"What I regret is that the fire extinguisher located on this (17th) floor did not work and caused us to not be able to extinguish the initial fire.
"I believe the fire started around 7pm, from the neighbouring house located next to the stairs," he said, adding that he did not hear any explosions during the incident.
Loo also said that his home was completely destroyed and no items could be saved.
However, he was grateful that he and his mother escaped without any injuries.
The Fire and Rescue Department last night confirmed that there were no casualties or injuries caused by the blaze at the flats.
City Fire and Rescue Department director, Nordi Pauzi said that they received the distress call at 9.19pm, and managed to control the fire that destroyed five out of six units on the flat's 17th floor by 11.22pm.