KUALA LUMPUR, April 8 — Investigators brought in two more excavators yesterday to expedite soil stabilisation work at the site of the gas pipeline explosion in Putra Heights, Subang Jaya.
Selangor police chief Datuk Hussein Omar Khan said the operation was being carried out around the clock so the report on the incident can be completed sooner.
He added that as of today, 30 per cent of the work was done, with sheet piling to begin in the afternoon.
“We are working on the soil grading process for machinery to enter the site for sheet piling,” he told a media conference at the Putra Heights Incident Control Post here today.
He said work to install the sheet pile is set to be done tomorrow, with the excavator buried in the crater left behind by the explosion to be removed in two or three days.
Hussein said agencies such as the Royal Malaysia Police, Fire and Rescue Department, Public Works Department and Occupational Safety and Health Department, will be on standby at the location 24 hours a day to monitor excavation.
He was previously reported to have said that soil stabilisation would be carried out using three excavators, a bulldozer, and a backhoe.
The Petronas gas pipeline explosion at 8.10am on April 1 sent flames soaring more than 30m into the sky, with temperatures soaring to 1,000℃. It took nearly eight hours to extinguish.
The disaster destroyed 81 homes completely, with structural damage exceeding 40 per cent, with another 81 partially destroyed, 57 affected but not burnt, and 218 houses unaffected.
— Bernama
