Services disrupted after fire breaks out on monorail coach at Maharajalela

KUALA LUMPUR: Fire broke in the driver's cabin and one of the monorail coaches at the Jalan Maharajalela Monorail Station today, briefly disrupting monorail services in the city centre.

The KL Sentral-bound train was approaching the Maharajalela station around 7.15 am when one of its four-carriage train's rubber tyre exploded and caught fire. No one was hurt in the incident.

Senior Operation Commander Assistant Fire Superintendent Mohamad Iqbal Zakaria said the Kuala Lumpur Operations Centre received an emergency call at 7.27 am and five engines with 21 firefighters were dispatched to the location.

"The fire was completely extinguished by 8.56 am. All the passengers had safely disembarked before the firemen arrived," he told Bernama here today.

He said the driver was said to have heard an explosion while the public transport was moving towards the Maharajalela Monorail Station.

So as not to take a risk, the driver stopped the monorail coach at the station to drop off nine passengers even though at that time the monorail had not caught fire. When the firefighters arrived, the fire was already raging," he said, adding that the cause of the fire was under investigation.

Meanwhile, Prasarana Malaysia Berhad in a statement explained that one of the 64 tires used by the four-car train exploded and caught fire believed to be due to low tyre pressure.

For passengers' convenience alternate train shuttle services between the Titiwangsa and Hang Tuah stations were activated at 7.38am.

"At the same time, complimentary shuttle vans were provided to ferry passengers between KL Sentral, Tun Sambathan and Maharajalela monorail stations.

"The affected train was towed out of Maharajalela station at 10.59 am to the depot for further investigation. Affected passengers have been offered refund coupons that can be claimed at any Monorail counters.

"Rapid KL regrets and apologises for the incident and the inconvenience caused," the statement read.

-- BERNAMA