The Malaysian Insight

THE partition on the second floor of Darul Quran Ittifaqiyah, which blocked the students and teachers’ escape during yesterday’s fire, came with the building, tahfiz spokesman Mohd Ali Abdul Kadir said.

“It was the surau management who was originally in charge of the building. And I was made to understand that it (the partition) was their responsibility,” he said.

He denied that the building did not have proper certification.

“There was a statement that the building did not have a certificate. That is incorrect because I was informed that everything (documents) had been submitted. Only the CCC (Certificate of Completion and Compliance)(from the) architect was still pending. Everything else had been cleared.”

On public outrage over the incident, Ali said it was impossible to stop people from talking.

“Yes, I saw what they said. Some were baseless and some were said in haste. But how are we going to make them stop?”

Ali said the tragedy had badly affected the centre principal.

“It has not been not easy for him. The public has questioned the safety of the school, but we are even more concerned about safety because the pupils are like our children. We spend more time with them than with our families.”

He said tahfiz schools did not neglect safety issues and that he, as the Negeri Sembilan Tahfiz Association president, regularly visited the tahfiz schools to talk to the principals and pupils about safety.

“We arrange programmes with the fire department as well as the police,” he added.

On the fixed grilles installed in the school building, Ali said those who had brought up the matter surely had fixed grilles installed in the windows of their own homes.

“Your house, too (would have fixed grilles). It is the same even in my house,” he said.

A pre-dawn blaze yesterday morning at a religious school in Jalan Datuk Keramat killed 21 pupils and two teachers.

The Fire and Rescue Department had said that the victims in the dormitory could not get out through the windows because of fixed grilles.

Kuala Lumpur Fire and Rescue Department director Khirudin Drahman said a partition erected on the second floor had also cut off the victims’ escape.

He said the partition was not included in the original floor plan that was submitted by the architect in 2015 to the Fire Department for safety inspection.

In the original plan, there were two entry and exit points, but the structure that was built was not according to the plan submitted to the Fire and Rescue Department, said Khirudin.

Furthermore, he said, there was no application to the department for a safety inspection after the building was built. – September 15, 2017.