Remains of all three victims of diesel storage fire recovered

PETALING JAYA: The remains of three workers who fell into a diesel storage tank that caught fire at a cement factory on Jalan Kuang in Rawang have been recovered by the search team.

Selangor Fire and Rescue Department assistant director of operations Mohd Sani Harul said firemen managed to recover the first body at about 2.50pm on Saturday.

The first victim has been identified as Mohd Ziehafizan Abd Rahman, 28.

The remains of the second victim, identified as 35-year-old Zamri Adenan, were recovered at about 4.35pm while the third victim, identified as Baskaran Thanakodi, 49, was retrieved at about 6.09pm.

During the 4.15pm incident on Friday (Nov 3), the three men were said to be doing maintenance work at the 4.26m high tank when an explosion was believed to have occurred before the three fell into the burning tank.

Following the incident, the rescuers had to drain over 725,000 litres of diesel from the tank to locate the victims after firefighters put out the fire.

Meanwhile, Lafarge Malaysia Bhd said in a statement on its website on Friday that the fire occurred at its Rawang plant between 4.15pm and 4.20pm.

The statement said that the Fire and Rescue Department was on site within 10 minutes and the fire was put out shortly after that.

"We are working with relevant authorities to assess the extent of the damage. 

This will be pursued through the night and an update will be provided tomorrow. 

We are also a launching a thorough investigation over the cause of the incident," the statement said.