Sprinkler saves hotel from serious damage
by Salena Pail, reporters@theborneopost.com. Posted on February 4, 2012, Saturday
ON FIRE: The morning fire spreading to the outer wall of the hotel before it was extinquished.
LIMBANG: The practice of regularly maintaining the automatic sprinkler system of a hotel here by its owner helped prevent the whole premises from being totally destroyed by a fire early yesterday morning.
Fire and Rescue Department Limbang Zone chief Anuar Shazad Merdzuki said the work of putting out the fire quickly was achieved with the help of the automatic sprinkler system installed in the building that functioned well.
The action taken by the hotel owner to maintain the system saved the entire premises from greater damages, he added.
Anuar revealed that most fires that occur in buildings were difficult to control and spread rapidly to adjacent areas due to the sprinkler system being not well maintained or damaged.
He said the public, especially premise owners, need to be aware of the necessity of always maintaining the system on their premises, especially when confronted with the risk of fire.
Commenting on the incident, he said 11 Fire and Rescue personnel and a fire engine rushed to the
scene after receiving a call at 9.32am.
“We succeeded in putting out the fire after 13 minutes and the whole operation ended at 10.21am,” he said, adding a full investigation on the incident would be ready within 21 days.
Meanwhile, hotel owner Lawrence Lim said the fire was believed to have occurred when cooking oil in the kitchen caught fire before spreading into the kitchen exhaust.
“The fire spread quickly and burned part of the kitchen and the wall outside the premise. During the incident, two workers were cooking in the kitchen; they were too surprised to take action using the available fire extinguishers,” he told The Borneo Post.
The total loss estimated at RM200,000 included the damage to some parts of the kitchen, cooking utensils and an aluminium outer wall.
