When a Perodua Myvi caught fire this morning on Jalan Cheras, bystander Teo Chai Yong rushed to a nearby BHP petrol station for help. He little expected that his request for a fire extinguisher would be refused by the two BHP staff on duty and as his pleas fell on deaf ears, the Myvi’s female driver died as the car burned.
The Myvi in question was severely damaged in an accident involving a lorry and a Toyota Vios. According to Teo, he heard the Myvi’s female driver call for help while at the same time, a fire around the engine area was spreading. The accident occured at around 3.30 am, near the Cheras velodrome according to Bernama.
While making calls to the fire department and police, Teo made his way to the petrol station. His requests were denied, the staff claiming that the management did not allow the loan of fire extinguishers to the public. There were only two staff members at the kiosk, both locals.
“I was willing to leave my IC with the staff as a guarantee, but they refused,” said Teo.
Angered at the staff’s refusal to cooperate, he started yelling at the staff and said that if the victim died, they would be the murderers.
In retaliation, the staff instead threatened to report Teo to management as well as the police.
When it was clear he would not get any aid, he returned to the accident site.
By the time he returned, the fire had consumed the car along with its driver.
What saddens Teo is that he claims police at the scene said that the driver’s life could have likely been saved if a fire extinguisher had arrived in time.
According to a representative from the fire department, the accident claimed one life in total with two others in critical condition while another person, the lorry driver, was stable.
Update: The deceased is believed to be Florina ak Joseph, 27, a Sarawakian native and a student. Confirmation of the deceased’s identity is pending DNA test results.
Photos of the accident were posted up on the Ondscene blog, by an anonymous bystander.
BHP government relations manager Abdul Kaiyum when contacted claimed that the BHP attendants refused to open the door for Teo as he was not acting calmly when asking for assistance. Neither did they refer to their supervisor because it was past midnight.
In defence of the staff in charge, he said that the two of them previously had been attacked and beaten up by assailants while on duty at the station. Update: BHP clarified that there will be no formal press conference over the matter and has yet to release a formal media statement.
(Photo credit: Ondscene)
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Jimmy Tan
