KUALA LUMPUR: Terrified passengers described it as "a ride through hell", when the Light Rail Transit (LRT) train they were in passed by a raging inferno in Pudu on Tuesday.
A viral video shared on the XiaoHongShu account showed a short clip of the burning building near the LRT Sri Petaling line, with some passengers fearing that they would be engulfed in flames.
In the caption, passengers said they were on their way home from Pudu, heading towards Chan Sow Lin at 8.13pm on June 18 when they suddenly saw the raging flames outside the train.
"Regarding the Pudu fire yesterday (June 18). I was heading home from Pudu, heading towards Chan Sow Lin.
"When I was standing and holding on to the handrail, I suddenly saw a flash of red on the opposite side. I could only watch the fire getting closer, and closer to us.
"After a few seconds, high temperatures followed. The entire coach suddenly became very hot in those few seconds," said a passenger in the post.
They said they were so stunned that they only managed to pull out their phones and record the last three seconds of the incident.
"By the time I came to my senses and picked up my phone to take a video, it was already halfway through. But the fire and the LRT were very close, and it was scary," said the passenger.
Fire and Rescue Department senior operations commander, Logeswaran Lavan, said 25 personnel were deployed to the scene in Jalan Pudu after receiving a call at 8.04pm.
"The fire involved seven squatter houses… six units were completely destroyed, while one unit was 40 per cent destroyed.
"The fire also involved a two-storey shop house. The upper floor was completely destroyed. Additionally, three cars and three motorcycles were also destroyed.
"The fire was successfully extinguished, and no casualties were reported. The cause of the fire is still under investigation," he said in a Facebook post.