69 residents to be evacuated

PETALING JAYA: Residents from 12 houses in Jalan 14/15 behind the collapsed Jaya Supermarket building will be evacuated for their own safety.

The 69 people affected would have to live elsewhere for at least a week while the Public Works Institute of Malaysia (Ikram) assesses the stability of the 10-storey office block at the other end of the collapsed building, Petaling Jaya mayor Datuk Mohamad Roslan Sakiman said yesterday.

The Petaling Jaya City Council had offered Dewan MPPJ in Kelana Jaya as a temporary shelter but the residents declined, so the contractors decided to put them up in a hotel, he said.

Shifting house: Su Do Kin Meng (left) helping his mother pack some belongings while awaiting further instructions on the evacuation plan.

However, the residents were unhappy about the RM150 per day per house offer as it was inadequate.

One of the evacuees Ong Pek Kim, who has been living in the area for over 45 years, said the evacuation order should have been issued sooner.

“The authorities only called us now when they should have told us about the dangers from the moment the building first collapsed,” she said.

Civil engineer Dr Arham Abdullah, who is a senior lecturer at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia’s Civil Engi-neering Faculty, said the residents should be evacuated to create a buffer zone for further demolition work.

He said the buffer zone should extend to a radius of twice the height of the building, according to British standards.

“My initial observation is that excessive loads on the top floor had caused the support columns to fail and resulted in the building collapse,” he said, adding that there were five heavy machines on the building when it collapsed.

Dr Arham also urged the Govern-ment to enforce stricter guidelines on demolition work.

The procedure for demolition work in developed countries requires contractors to consult professionals but this is not practised in Malaysia.

“Here, we only need to obtain approvals from the local authorities and the Department of Occupational Safety and Health,” he said.

Petaling Jaya OCPD Asst Comm Arjunaidi Mohamed said police were seeking professional opinion on the stability of the remaining building.