Policemen at the scene to investigate the fire. Also seen is the badly damaged vehicle.
KUCHING: A driver of a Kia Spectra and a passenger had a brush with death when the car caught fire at the arrival lane Level 1 of the Kuching International Airport (KIA) on Saturday night.
The incident happened around 9pm when the car’s owner was sending off his relatives – a family with a five-month-old baby – to the airport to catch a flight to Kuala Lumpur.
Mathew Igoh Lingkong from Taman Satria Jaya BDC, in his 30s switched off his car’s engine before going to the car boot to retrieve several luggage.
That was when he noticed smoke billowing from under the bonnet. It prompted him to keep a distance from the car before it burst into flames.
The vehicle was 95 per cent damaged by the flames.
Kuching police chief ACP Roslan Bek Ahmad confirmed the case and said the car owner also lost some personal belongings in the fire.
Tabuan Jaya Fire and Rescue (Bomba) rushed a fire engine to the scene and it arrived around 8.45pm.
They managed to douse the fire by 9.30pm.
No fatality was reported and the cause of the fire is still under investigation.