SIBU: About RM5 million worth of furniture went up in smoke in a factory fire in Salim Road yesterday afternoon.
The factory fire at its height in Salim Road yesterday afternoon.
Koo (left) and Yap (right) consoling the distraught factory owner (centre).
An elderly worker sustained light facial injury in the blaze which occurred around 2pm. His shirt was also slightly burned.
A two-storey block and a one-storey block were razed while another one-storey block was affected. Only some pieces of the furniture at the third block were salvaged.
The 70-year-old factory owner, who requested anonymity, told reporters he was talking to a customer in his office when the fire broke out.
“Staffers ran helter-skelter. I tried to douse the flame with fire extinguishers but to no avail,” he said, adding that the fire spread fast.
The owner tried to retrieve valuable items from a safe at the burning premises but the fire was too intense to get back inside.
He said the fire could have started from the back of the two-storey block.
“A lot of machines, furniture, and furniture materials were destroyed,” he lamented.
Fire-fighters in four fire engines and a civil defence department vehicle were despatched.
The factory was built 13 years ago after the company’s outlet in Kwang Tung Road was razed.
The owner has more than 10 workers but only five were working when the fire broke out yesterday.
Deputy police chief Supt Martin Koo and Dudong assemblyman Yap Hoi Liong were among those at the fire scene.
