Foul smell sparks fear among Kampung Baru Sri Aman residents

JOHOR BAHRU, Sept 15  -- A foul smell has sparked fears among residents of Kampung Baru Sri Aman, Seelong, near here, and forced them to vacate their house last night.

Rubaiyah Mat Sam, 70, said she started to smell the strong unpleasant odour yesterday afternoon before experiencing dizziness.

“I tried to find the source of the smell around my house but I did not find anything amiss.

“My daughter-in-law and I also felt dizzy forcing us to take paracetamol tablet,” she said when met by reporters at the Kampung Sinaran Baru community hall, Seelong, early this morning.

Rubaiyah who lives with her son, daughter-in-law and two grandchildren, said fire personnel who came to her house at 10 pm informed her that the smell was probably caused by a chemical spill at a nearby area.

She said the fire personnel then ordered her to vacate her house and move to the community hall temporarily.

Another resident, Hafiz Badrul Hisham, 37, said the smell permeated his house at about 8.30pm. 

“As the smell got stronger, I tried to locate the source but I then experienced shortness of breath,” he said when met at Kampung Baru Sri Aman.

Hafiz said he was also told by a neighbour that a woman had suffered cough before she collapsed, believed to be due to inhalation of a strong chemical odour.

Meanwhile, Puteri Wangsa assemblyman Mazlan Bujang said the residents were relocated to the Kampung Sinaran Baru community hall which is located about one kilometre away from their village as the smell was still strong.

“They were ordered to evacuate for their own safety and we have also provided them with food supplies and necessities,” he said when met in the village, last night.

In the 10pm incident, two women have been treated for breathing difficulties while a group of residents in Kampung Baru Sri Aman vacated their homes after inhaling a strong chemical odour.

Johor Hazardous Materials and Waste Management (Hazmat) Unit chief, fire senior assistant superintendent Saiful Bahri Safar said they conducted detection, isolation and damping in the tributary and it was found that there was a spill of solid-liquid in the area.

He said preliminary investigations revealed that, the spill was believed to be methyl alcohol, a type of scheduled waste, with a concentration of 120 ppm (parts per million).

-- BERNAMA