Woman badly burnt at petrol kiosk

KUALA LUMPUR: The Fire and Rescue Department warned that using a handphone at a petrol station even if it was inside a closed car can be a high risk to one's safety.
This was the case of a 25-year-old woman who suffered serious burns all over her body at a petrol station in Setapak Indah today after she took a phone call on her handphone inside her car while filling it up with petrol.
An explosive burst of flames lasting just a second was all it took to severely torch the teacher from Batu Caves.
Wangsa Maju Fire and Rescue Department operations officer R. Manogaran said firemen responding to a distress call at 1.25pm today, arrived at the petrol station within 10 minutes before finding the victim badly burnt in a car.
"She had suffered over 60% burns all over her body and was lying in a semi-conscious state in the rear passenger seat of the car. We secured the area and call for an ambulance that took her to the Kuala Lumpur Hospital for treatment." he told theSun.
Manogaran said he learnt that the victim was refuelling her car when she heard her cellphone which was on the rear seat.
He said the woman is believed to have locked the trigger of the fuel nozzle to continue refuelling before entering her car.
"On getting into the back seat, she shut the car door and picked up the call. Witnesses told us that there was a loud explosion and a burst of flames inside the closed door that lasted just seconds. The heat of the ball of fire inside was so intense that it caused the victim severe burns. There was fire damage to the interior of the car," he said.
Manogaran said though investigations are underway, it is believed that fumes from the petrol during the refuelling had entered the woman's car and the gases were compressed when she closed the door.
He said when she picked up her call, static electricity from her handphone may have ignited the highly flammable gases.
"Our advice to the public is to completely refrain using their cellphones at petrol stations – inside or outside their vehicles. The safest measure one can take is to completely shut down all cellphones before starting to refuel. Better safe than sorry.
This is no trivial matter as it can people their lives if they are ignorant to the dangers of handphone use at petrol stations." he said.
Last week, a seven-year-old boy who was fiddling with a cigarette lighter in the rear seat of his mother's car suffered a similar fate when a ball of fire left him badly burnt.
The incident occurred at a petrol station in Kuala Krai, Kelantan where the boy's mother was filling her car.
She was shocked when an explosion occurred inside the car.
The woman managed to open the car door and save her son before staff of the petrol station put out the fire with extinguishers.