Monday, 05 November 2012 08:45

Mohd Zakee Daud, 35, is engulfed in flames while fighting the fire at the Pengkalan Chepa industrial area yesterday. Pix: Nik Abdullah Nik Omar / NSTPengkalan Chepa Factory Fire: 11 firemen injured in boiler-tank explosion at industrial area

KOTA BARU: DANGER is part of the job, but in the end, it is teamwork which makes the difference between life and death.

This was what happened when 39 firemen responded to a distress call at the Pengkalan Chepa industrial area yesterday.

What started as a minor fire in the rear area of a factory soon turned into something resembling "a war zone", as one of the firemen puts it.

Two boiler tanks at the factory exploded as the firemen were attempting to put out the blaze, injuring 11 of them, including five seriously, in the 8am incident.

Fireman Shahril Yusma Mohd Yusuf was injured in the right hand, but thought nothing of it when he saw a colleague on fire.

Criticially injured Fire and Rescue Department officers Zulkifli Mahmud (L) and Wan Asri Wan Yaacob at the Raja Perempuan Zainab II Hospital. Pix: Nik Abdullah Nik Omar / NSTThe 33-year-old jumped on his colleague, Zulkifli Mahmud, to smother the flames.

Shahril said he was inspecting the area when he saw smoke coming from the lower part of one of the boilers."I was passing the area when I saw the smoke. In a second, it exploded and the situation there was like a war zone.

"I was lucky that I only escaped with minor injuries but I saw my friend Zulkifli on the ground with fire all over the body. Without thinking, I jumped on top of him to put out the fire."

The fireman from the Tunjung fire station said he was glad that he managed to rescue 40-year-old Zulkifli.

"There was smoke everywhere but I saw that firemen who were uninjured were helping their injured colleagues, while some continued to put out the flames."

Shahril's colleague, Mahusin Hassan, said he was lucky to be alive, as he was not standing far from the boilers.

The 45-year-old from Pengkalan Chepa said he was doing his work with others near him when the explosions occurred. "We didn't expect it. We were almost done putting out the fire when it occurred."

State Fire and Rescue Department director Azmi Othman said two of the 11 were warded at Raja Perempuan Zainab II Hospital while the rest were at Universiti Sains Malaysia Hospital in Kubang Kerian. "Initial investigations revealed that the factory had been abandoned for more than a year."