PETALING JAYA, 28 May: The Petaling Jaya City Council (MBPJ) has been asked to set-up temporary stalls for nine vendors from the Jalan Penchala Hawker Centre which was recently burned down.
This effort will be carried out by the Member of Parliament for Petaling Jaya Selatan, Hee Loy Sian, who will write a letter to the Mayor of Petaling after visiting the fire site.
Loy Sian said that this business it the main source of income for the vendors involved.
“In the nearest future, I will write a letter to the Mayor set-up stalls for them to continue business temporarily.
“Stalls one to three may take some time but stall four to nine will be completed immediately,” he said as he contributed RM500 to all vendors involved.
The fire took place at 11.10am yesterday due to a gas explosion at stall no. 2 and caused a short circuit.
The accident happened very quickly causing almost all of the stalls to incur property damage, especially to the vendors’ business equipment.
As of now, the fire department and MBPJ are still investigating the cost of damages.
In the meantime, several vendors who were met admitted that the fire affects their source of income and that they have to incur the cost of damages to their equipment.
The owner of stall no. 6, Kaminam Kapi who has been in business for over 25 years estimated that the losses amounts to around RM8,000, including the damages of his business equipment.
“We could not save anything. All the equipment, such as the refrigerator, can no longer be used,” he said.
For Jamaludin Mahmud, this is the first time such an incident has happened to him after being a vendor for over 13 years.
During the incident, he only realised that the row of stalls started to be enveloped by flamed after hearing screams.
“When I panicked, the fire was already above me,” he added.
Meanwhile, the Assemblyman for Taman Medan, Haniza Talha hopes that MBPJ will supply basic needs such as water and electricity to enable the vendors to carry out business temporarily while their stalls are repaired.
Haniza added that she has contacted the Selangor Zakat Board to apply for disaster assistance to lighten the burden of the vendors.
She also urged for MBPJ to tighten safety and cleanliness regulations for vendors to prevent such incidents from happening.
“I hope that after this, MBPJ will impose regulations to ensure that vendors prioritise safety and cleanliness so that such an incident will not recur,” she said.
