Gas pipeline blaze: Ong family grateful to be alive despite heavy losses

PUTRAJAYA, April 3 — In the blink of an eye, a peaceful Tuesday morning quickly turned into chaos for Ong Yaw Kern and his three children when an explosion ripped through their neighbourhood, caused by a gas pipeline blaze in Putra Heights, Subang Jaya.

“It was about 8am, I was in my room, and my children were asleep. At first, I thought it was an earthquake, and I heard a very loud explosion.

“Before I could react, a big rock (caused by the explosion) fell in front of me,” Yaw Kern recalled, his voice choked with emotion.

Amid the chaos, his first thought was to ensure his family’s safety and salvage important documents as fast as he could.

“I told my kids to stay put in one corner of the house, grabbed the important papers I needed and waited for the rocks to stop falling before moving them to a safer place,” the 51-year-old accountant told Bernama at the Putrajaya Hospital today.

Yaw Kern and his children — Jing Ren (son), 15, Jing Xuan (daughter), 13, and Jing Shen (son), 11 — who all suffered second-degree burns on their legs, were at the hospital for wound cleaning.

The family’s home, which had stood as a place of comfort for the past decade, was destroyed as it was the closest unit to the explosion, located just 50 metres away.

Despite an estimated RM2 million loss, including the house, personal belongings, and various types of equipment, Yaw Kern remains thankful and hopeful that they will be able to rebuild what has been lost.

“It is devastating. We have lost everything, and it is hard to describe. Heartbreaking, but we were lucky to be alive after the horrific incident. That is all that matters,” he said, adding that his wife was away on a hike on that day.

Now staying in a budget hotel, Yaw Kern said their next step is to find a house or an apartment to stay in and start afresh.

Meanwhile, Jing Ren said that when the incident occurred, he felt a tremor and thought an earthquake had struck.

“But when I looked out the window, it (the blaze) looked so bright, and I knew something was wrong. I went to my brother and sister, who looked confused and did not know what to do.

“Thankfully, our dad was at home. He told us to go downstairs, but we could not go outside because it was so hot. Once the flames died down, we climbed into our neighbour’s house and were evacuated without any serious injuries,” said the SMK USJ 13 Form Three student.

Jing Ren, his siblings, and their father were among those who received initial treatment from Health Ministry personnel at the Sri Maha Kaliamman Temple before being sent to the Putrajaya Hospital.

On Tuesday (April 1), Petronas confirmed that the fire occurred at the main pipeline owned by Petronas Gas Bhd.

The fire, which broke out at 8.10am, took almost eight hours to be fully extinguished and resulted in a crater approximately 9.8 metres deep and 21 by 24 metres in size.

— Bernama