Driver escapes burning lorry at JB checkpoint

Border conflagration: The flaming lorry at the checkpoint in Johor Baru. The immigration booth suffered some damage as well.

JOHOR BARU: A lorry driver making a routine delivery to Singapore got a shock when his vehicle suddenly caught fire at the immigration checkpoint here.

D. Chandran said he was about to drive into Singapore with his lorry carrying sand at around 5.45pm when he said he heard “a funny sound from the vehicle”.

“I smelt smoke and saw flames. I scrambled out of the lorry because I was afraid it would explode,” he said.

Chandran said he had just sent the lorry for maintenance and speculated that there could have been a wiring malfunction that caused the fire.

“I then contacted the authorities for help,” he said, adding that he was lucky no one was injured.

Johor Baru Fire and Rescue Depart­ment head of operations P. Krishnen said fire officers received a call about the matter at around 5.50pm.

”We rushed to the scene and found the vehicle still in flames,” he said. The fire was doused by 6.17pm.

Johor Baru (South) OCPD Asst Comm Sulaiman Salleh said that initial investigations confirmed that the fire was caused by faulty wiring.

“The estimated losses are about RM80,000 for the lorry and RM20,000 for the immigration booth,” he said.