SUBANG JAYA (April 1): Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has announced an immediate financial aid of RM5,000 to owners of homes that were completely destroyed as a result of the gas pipeline fire along Jalan Putra Harmoni Putra Heights, Subang Jaya on Tuesday morning.

He also announced an aid of RM2,500 for over 100 owners of homes that were partially destroyed during a visit to the site of the fire and operations centre on Tuesday afternoon, adding that the federal and Selangor state governments, as well as Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas) were discussing suitable measures relating to the housing of evacuees before they could return to their homes.

“Discussions with KPKT (the Housing and Local Government Ministry) the (Selangor) state government, and Petronas indicated that (their homes) will not be restored in a short period of time.

“The government and Petronas are talking about how we can take temporary measures, but it’s reasonable, as it takes a year; it’s not like floods, which is a week or two.

“But the responsibility to fix this housing area, to repair or replace, that we will undertake fully… The federal government and Petronas, I hope there are no concerns, it just will take a bit of time,” he told reporters during his visit to the fire site here on Tuesday.

The prime minister was given a briefing earlier about the coordination of duties at the incident control post at Jalan Putra Harmoni, Putra Heights, Subang Jaya by the Royal Malaysian Police, before visiting the site of the fire himself.

Selangor Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Amirudin Shari, Deputy Inspector General of Police Datuk Seri Ayob Khan Mydin Pitchay, National Disaster Management Agency (Nadma) director general Datuk Khairul Shahril Idrus, Fire and Rescue Department director general Datuk Nor Hisham Mohammad, as well as Petronas president and group chief executive officer Tan Sri Tengku Muhammad Taufik Tengku Aziz also attended the briefing.

Anwar also revealed that a detailed investigation will be conducted to identify the cause of the incident, and the investigation team is expected to require more time to obtain results.

For the time being, residents whose houses were affected by the fire would not be allowed to return to their homes, and all government machinery would be mobilised to ensure they had temporary shelters, he added.

He also thanked security personnel, including the police and firefighters, along with Petronas, for taking immediate action to tackle the fire, and praised local community leaders for providing immediate aid to affected residents.

“Our priority now is safety and everything seems under control for now. That’s why I chose to go and see the site itself to prove that it is safe,” Anwar said.

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