THE result of autopsies carried out on all 23 victims of the fire that gutted Darul Quran Ittifaqiyah Tahfiz, indicated that they died from smoke and poisonous gas inhalation.
Sources close to the investigation told the New Straits Times that the 21 students and two teachers who perished in the early morning fire died after inhaling toxic gas including carbon monoxide, released from items that were burning in the building.
"Their cause of death was all the same, which was due to "excessive inhalation" of smoke and poison gas.
"When items in the building were burning, they produced toxic gases. The excessive smoke also reduced the level of oxygen in the area causing difficulties to breath," the source said adding that the victims’ bodies were severely burnt.
The source said the identification process for most of the victims were carried out by matching the victims' blood or bone samples, to their parents'.
"The team of experts who conducted the identification process had to use DNA sampling to identify the victims.
"Even their relatives could not identify their loved ones," the source said.
It was learnt that authorities who conducted the identification process were unable to conduct fingerprint identification as their fingers were badly burnt.
"The team also could not carry out dental identification because most of them were children and they had never been for dental checkups, so it is difficult to get records.
"Hence, the majority of them were identified via blood and bone testings," the source added.
At the Kuala Lumpur Hospital where the identification process was carried out, parents, despite being advised against looking at the deceased, insisted on taking a final look at their loved ones.
"They were advised against it but some of the relatives insisted on looking at their loved ones for the last time.
"They were first shown pictures of the victims on the laptop but some insisted on looking at the remains of children," the source said.
The NST learnt that there were four forensic teams and three dental teams comprising experts from the Health Ministry, Armed forces and local universities.
The DNA testing was conducted by the Chemistry department.
"Results from the Chemistry department were concluded around noon, but we needed to endorse it first, so everything was completed around 1.30pm," the source said.