RAWANG: The bodies of three men who fell into an oil storage tank in Rawang have been recovered after the last victim, T. Baskaran, 49, was found at 6.09 pm yesterday.
Selangor Fire and Rescue Department assistant director (operations) Mohd Sani Harul said the bodies of Baskaran, Mohd Ziehafizan Abd Rahman, 28, and Zamri Adenan, 35, had been handed over to the factory management for further action.
He said it was understood that the body of Mohd Ziehafizan, who was site supervisor, and Zamri and Baskaran, who were technicians, would be taken to the Sungai Buloh Hospital for post-mortem.
Meanwhile, Gombak District Police chief ACP Ali Ahmad said the large volume of diesel oil of up to 725,000 litres made the process of bringing out the bodies of the victims difficult.
He said up to 13 tanker lorries had to be used to pump out the excess diesel from the tank.
“The effort to pump out the diesel began at about 10 pm yesterday...all the victims were found this afternoon, and the cause of the explosion is still being investigated,” he told reporters at the location.
In the incident at about 4 pm yesterday, all three victims were reported to be carrying out maintenance work at the tank before an explosion occurred, causing them to fall into the tank.
Meanwhile Lafarge Malaysia said a thorough investigation is being conducted on the cause of the explosion that happened on a 4.26-metre-high storage tank at its factory.
In a statement its chief executive officer, Thierry Legrand said the company was working with relevant authorities on the investigation.
“We regret to inform that the bodies of our three colleagues have been recovered today from the fire damaged oil tank.
“We are deeply saddened by this tragedy and our immediate priority is our employees and their families,” he said.--BERNAMA