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Sunday afternoon in Sea Park, Petaling Jaya, was supposed to be about spring cleaning and getting ready for Chinese New Year — instead, it turned into a scene straight out of an action film.
A furniture factory measuring roughly 100 by 50 square meters caught fire around 1:15 p.m., and by the time firefighters arrived, it was fully ablaze with thick smoke billowing into the sky.
Explosions punctuated the chaos — not the kind that blow out windows, but sharp, unsettling pops that made residents wonder what was burning and whether they should be standing so close.
Black water sprayed everywhere as residents scrambled to move their cars before things got worse.
No one was injured, which is the only good news in this story.
But the fire was uncomfortably close to two petrol stations, less than 100 meters away, turning what might have been a routine factory fire into something far more nerve-wracking for everyone involved.
The Selangor Fire and Rescue Department dispatched 34 firefighters from four stations to the scene, treating it as a high-stakes situation, while police cordoned off the area and evacuated residents and bystanders as the fire raged.
“I Thought Someone Was Burning Trash”
One female resident told reporters she was at home tidying up for the new year when she noticed something was off — first came that unmistakable burnt odour, then the heat.
My house became very hot. I thought someone was burning rubbish, so I went outside to check. Turns out, it was a fire.
She immediately called the fire department, grabbed her valuables, and got out.
She also mentioned that firefighters ran low on water at one point and had to borrow supplies from a nearby petrol station — a detail that sounds almost absurd until you remember this is exactly the kind of logistical nightmare that happens during emergencies.
Another resident, a man who lived near the factory, said he first heard someone shouting “Fire!” and ran outside to see flames shooting up from behind his house. Ash and soot covered everything.
I called the fire department many times, but no one answered. The firefighters finally arrived about 30 minutes later.
Thirty minutes is a long time when you’re watching a building burn and wondering if the fire’s going to spread — or if those nearby petrol stations are going to become part of the problem.
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Black Water, Explosions, and a Crowd
Reporters on the scene described black water spraying from the factory, along with intermittent popping sounds suggesting something inside was reacting badly to the heat.
The fire attracted a crowd of onlookers, as fires tend to do, which meant police had to spend part of their time managing curious residents who wanted a closer look.
Firefighters were still on site in the late afternoon, working to fully extinguish the blaze and investigating what caused it.
No official cause has been announced yet.
Authorities are still investigating the cause of the blaze.
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Parts of this story have been sourced from China Press.
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