Malaysia fire blocks lone exit, 23 dead

Safety under scrutiny after victims were trapped inside 3-story building

KUALA LUMPUR - A blaze at a religious boarding school in the Malaysian capital killed 23 people on Thursday, most of them teenage boys who cried for help from barred windows, officials and witnesses said.

The fire broke out at around 5:40 am in a top-floor dormitory in the 3-story building, firemen said, where most of the students, aged between 13 and 17, were sleeping in bunk beds, with many of the windows covered by metal grills.

Two teachers were also killed in the fire at the Darul Quran Ittifaqiyah, a 15-minute drive from the iconic Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur, police said. Most of the victims died from smoke inhalation.

The disaster has renewed calls for greater scrutiny of so-called "tahfiz" schools, where students learn to memorize the Quran. They are unregulated by the education ministry, being the responsibility of the religious department.

Fire officials said they suspected the blaze was caused by an electrical short circuit, or a mosquito repelling device.

At least 30 fires at such schools have been reported this year, Urban Wellbeing, Housing and Local Government Minister Noh Omar told reporters, adding that the Kuala Lumpur school should not have been in operation. He did not elaborate on the previous fires.

The dormitory had only one entrance, leaving many of the victims trapped, he said. At least one window was unbarred.

"The building was surrounded by metal grills that could not be opened from the inside. The students, after realizing the fire and heavy smoke, tried to escape through the window," Soiman said outside the school.

"But because of the grills, they could not escape."

Soiman said the school had submitted a request for fire safety approval but no new checks had been carried out as the request was still being processed.

"The pupils all got locked in and they couldn't escape and got burned," Nadia Azalan, sister of a 13-year-old victim, said in tears as distraught family members gathered outside the building. "Safety should come first."

A man identified only as Hazin, who lived next door to the school, said his son called the fire department after they heard screams and saw the flames.

"The children were crying for help, but I couldn't help them as the door was already on fire," he said.

"I only managed to save a few of the kids who jumped out the window."

Mohd Izzarudin Roslan, 15, said he had broken a window and climbed out on to a water pipe.

Only eight of the boys managed to get out, he said.

"A few of my friends fell, there were some who had fire on their hair and clothes," he said in a video posted online by the New Straits Times, an English-language daily.

Reuters - AFP - Xinhua

(China Daily 09/15/2017 page12)