Kuala Lumpur - A fire at an Islamic
boarding school for boys killed at least 24 people, most of them
students, in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur on Thursday
morning, officials said.
Officials suspected an electrical short circuit caused the
blaze that broke out in a top floor dormitory, where most of the
students perished.
The fire at Darul Quran Ittifaqiyah, a "tahfiz" boarding
school where students learn to memorise the Qur’an, was reported
around 5:40 a.m. local time (2140 GMT Wednesday), according to a
statement from the Malaysian Fire and Rescue Department.
The blaze began in the sleeping quarters on the top floor of
the three-storey school building, the statement said.
Kuala Lumpur police chief Amar Singh told reporters that 22
students and 2 wardens were killed. All the students were boys
aged 13-17, and they probably suffocated due to smoke
inhalation.
"They're still counting the bodies, which were piled on top
of each other in a corner," Singh said in the aftermath of one
of the worst fires in Malaysia during the past two decades.
The dormitory had only one entrance, leaving many of the
victims trapped inside, he said. Some witnesses said they had
heard the students crying for help after the fire broke out.
"The building was surrounded by metal grills that could not
be opened from the inside. The students, after realising the
fire and heavy smoke, tried to escape through the window," said
Fire and Rescue Department operations deputy director Soiman
Jahid told reporters outside the school.
"But because of the grills, they could not escape," he
said.
Soiman said they were still investigating the cause of the
fire but it was likely caused by short circuit or a lit mosquito
repellant coil.
A man identified only as Hazin, who lived next door to the
school, said his son called the fire department after they heard
screams and saw the flames.
"The children were crying for help, but I couldn't help them
as the door was already on fire," he told Reuters.
"I only managed to save a few of the kids who jumped out the
window."
Hazin said his friend's son was among the students who
perished.
"We ran there because he knew he was inside, but I couldn't
save him. He was trapped inside," he said.
While the emergency services removed the victims and
inspected the site, distraught parents were seen crying as they
spoke with officials on the street where hundreds of people had
gathered.
Viewed from outside the only obvious tell-tale signs of
disaster at the school were the blackened upper floor windows,
as otherwise the tin roofed building appeared unscathed, with a
Malaysian flag hanging limply from the yellow external walls.
Only inside did the intensity of the inferno become clear,
as the dormitory was completely blackened, lined with the
charred frames of bunk beds where the boys had slept.
Several of the 18 survivors were taken to hospital to be
treated for injuries, officials said. Trucks carrying bodies of
the victims were seen arriving at the morgue.
Tahfiz schools, which are unregulated by the education
ministry and fall under the purview of the religious department,
have been under scrutiny since earlier this year when an
11-year-old boy died after reported abuse in Johor, north of
Singapore.
Officials said based on the records of the Kuala Lumpur
fire safety department, the school had just submitted a request
for fire safety approval for the building but no checks had been
carried as at the request was still being processed.