Received a call on a Sunday evening at 8.30pm.
Agent: Hello, is this Ivan?
Me: Yes, speaking.
Agent: I just received a call from the neighbour. Your client’s house is on fire lah. Can you quickly go over and check?
Me: What??! Client is currently in Singapore.
Agent: Can check if any tenants staying in?
Me: Nobody’s staying in, we are just about to begin renovation next week.
Agent: Oh, thank god. The neighbour already called the Bomba.
Me: Okay, can you update me about the status once they arrived? I won’t be able to make it there in time.
(10 mins later)
Agent: Hello, the Bomba came already. Super fast. 5 mins arrived from the time the neighbour called.
Me: Okay, what’s the condition like now?
Agent: They managed to put off the fire already (photo from agent). Looks like the source of the fire is the washing machine.
Me: That’s strange cause nobody’s staying at the property. (Still baffled)
Agent: The kitchen and the living room burnt. Luckily the neighbour witness the smoke from the window around 8.20pm and called the Bomba immediately. If not the entire house would have burnt to the ground.
Me: Yeah, thank god. Anyways, thanks for the help. I’ll go over tomorrow.
Agent: Ok. Eh, can check what brand and let me know ya?
Me: Sure. Thanks again.
Since the fire has been put off by the Bomba, I dropped by the property on the following day to assess how bad the damage would be. It turns out that the culprit was the washer’s short circuit.
The fire spread to the living room via electrical circuits all over the ceiling and melted the fans and plaster ceiling. Thank God the fire was contained in the living room and the total damage to the property is 5% reported by the Bomba, but I think the figure was underestimated. There were no victims.
If you don’t want to waste your time juggling around with unnecessary trips back and forth, let me save you the “figuring out” and how to do this properly:
STEP 1: First thing we pretty much did was to collect as much evidence as we possibly can. Extensive photos and videos. Extra is always better.
STEP 2: Head to the management office. Get a copy of the fire insurance policy with the master policy. You can use your own fire insurance policy if you bought one.
STEP 3: Head to the nearest police station next to file a police report for insurance purposes. Prepare a list of burnt items, furniture, and burnt area. Keep a softcopy of the police report, you’ll need it in the future.
STEP 4: Head to the nearest fire station, submit all the abovementioned documents. Get reporting officer’s contact and closely follow up till the official fire report is complete. This may take a couple of days.
STEP 5: Make payment of the fire report RM100 at the Bomba HQ (not station), Google “Ibu Pejabat Bomba” of your respective location. They’ll make you come back again after a few days because you cannot make payment and collect at the same time, says who? Says them. So yeah, wait for the call (Yeah, I know right, pretty inefficient but Malaysia Boleh).
STEP 6: Once you have been notified that your report is ready, pay your 2nd visit and now you can finally collect your official fire report only to discover that there is a separate forensic fire report to collect at another location that investigates the source of the fire. FML. Google “Jabatan Penyiasatan Kebakaran”. Malaysia Really Boleh.
STEP 7: Once you’ve gotten all your reports, submit them to the management office if you are claiming through our property management together with the evidence. Wait 3 weeks for an outcome. Good luck.
Apparently, when it comes to fire, it’s always complicated. Share this post if you find it useful or save it as a guide for future reference.
