Tall & Urban News

A 6-year-old girl died of smoke inhalation while her 4-year-old brother is being treated at the Penang Hospital's Intensive Care Unit (ICU) after their apartment at The Rise Collection II caught fire on the morning of 5 June, 2021.

The siblings were home alone while their parents were out with their one-year-old brother when the 9:10 am fire broke out at their three-room apartment unit on the 19th floor at Jalan Oo Lien Teh.

According to witnesses, the fire broke out about 9am, and was put out by 10:15am by firefighters who rushed to the scene.

The cause of the fire, which damaged 80 percent of the apartment unit and the damages are under investigation.

Northeast district police chief Assistant Commissioner Soffian Santong said, according to the victims' 34-year-old father, both he and his wife and their youngest child left to buy daily necessities about 8:30am.

He said they had left the other two children, who were sleeping, at home.

The father had installed a CCTV application, which is connected to his cellphone.

When he left this morning, he had activated a cell phone left in the kitchen, which is linked to his cell phone to monitor his children at home.

"The father learnt about the fire at 9am through the application before they rushed home.

"As soon as he arrived, he left his 1-year-old son with the neighbor and rushed inside the house to save his 4-year-old son, who was lying in the living room.

"His wife, meanwhile, rushed into the main room to retrieve their daughter.

"The parents, along with the victims, were then rushed to the hospital in an ambulance," he said.

A 27-year-old medical officer and other employees at the Emergency Unit immediately attended to the victims and tried to save the daughter but she passed away that afternoon.

For more on this story, go to the New Straits Times.