GEORGE TOWN, June 26 — The Penang Umno building owner, its architect and civil engineer have until July 8 to submit a full report to the local town council on the cause of the structural failure that caused a lightning arrester and fin wall of the building to crash onto the road below during a freak storm that lashed the island state on June 13.
The Penang Island Municipal Council (MPPP) has issued another reminder to the building architect, T.R. Hamzah & Yeang Sdn Bhd, to submit a full and detailed report on the cause of the building structural failure.
“Today, we had a meeting with the building owner, JKP Sdn Bhd, the architect and engineer to push for a full report on the incident and they had asked for more time so we are giving them another two weeks to come up with the report,” said MPPP building director Yew Tung Seang.
He told a press conference that JKP Sdn Bhd, who had engaged an independent consultant, Ikram Sdn Bhd, to come up with a full report, was given 30 days to submit the report by Ikram.
The council is still concerned over the safety of the rooftop portion of the building and had instructed the building owner and architect to come up with a conclusive report on the upper portion of the building, he said.
On June 13, a portion of the fin wall, which is a concrete beam of the building and the lightning arrester on it, crashed onto Macalister Road below, damaging seven cars and burying a car along with its driver, believed to be economy rice seller Lim Chin Aik, deep under ground.
Parts of Lim’s car were unearthed two days after the incident but no traces of human remains were found in the crater.
Search and rescue operations were called off last Monday due to concerns that further digging could compromise the safety of surrounding buildings.
The crater was filled in, the road paved over and opened to traffic a few days after search operations for Lim’s remains were called off.
A lorry co-driver and Indian national, Jahir Hussain Sulaiman, was also killed in the incident when part of the structure fell onto the lorry he was in.
On June 14, the council had issued a notice to JKP to remove any metal sheets and structures on the rooftop of the building that may pose a danger to the public.
It also issued a notice requesting that JKP, TR Hamzah & Yeang Sdn Bhd and the consultant engineer in charge of the building, Tahir Wong Sdn Bhd, to come up with a full report on the structural failure and the steps taken to rehabilitate the building immediately.
“We also wrote to them on June 18 to conduct a thorough check on the safety of the building and on June 19, they submitted a brief report stating that the building is safe for occupancy which the council accepted,” Yew said.
The council also conducted a physical check on the building on June 21 and found that the exterior part of the roof top of the building contained loose structure and instructed the owner to repair it immediately.
“JKP had repaired the exterior portion of the building two days ago,” he said.
