Fire ravages Chalan Piao shops, apartments

Firefighters responded to a blaze that raged through a Chalan Piao shopping and housing area located next to the MGM garment factory on Beach Road, Thursday night, forcing DPS traffic officers to close off almost a half-mile stretch of road between the Mobil station and the Royal Crown Insurance while Fire officers battled flames and thick smoke.

According to witnesses, there was an explosion in the same apartment where a woman was recently killed, and the fire spread rapidly from the back of the complex toward the store front, spewing a cloud of thick black smoke into the air.

Workers from the MGM garment factory wishing to remain anonymous said that they heard a loud booming sound moments before smoke and flames billowed from the adjacent complex.

“First we heard a big shot and saw the smoke, followed by the fire. The fire got bigger and bigger, we called 911, and the trucks got here,” one woman said.

As DPS Fire units were attempting to contain the fire, the sky continued to fill with thick black smoke. Firemen also ushered people out of the immediate vicinity of the blaze and got statements from the witnesses.

Fang Jiang lived in the apartment next door to where the murder occurred, and said that the unit had remained unoccupied ever since the homicide. Fang was taking a shower when she heard a loud boom from next door, and she rushed to grab some clothes and some personal belongings before leaving her apartment.

“Everybody is okay, but it all happened so fast with the [explosion] and the fire,” she said.

Fang believes that someone tossed an explosive device into the vacant unit because the apartment was completely empty prior to the time of the explosion, and that the culprit could have easily thrown their improvised explosive device through the hole left for an air conditioning unit.

DPS officials declined to comment on the cause of the fire or any of the specifics as it was still on going, but said that they will release their findings as soon as the structure is deemed safe enough for their personnel to conduct the investigation.

Another witness, Mohan Hemlani, had just finished shopping and was on his way home when he saw the smoke and pulled over to see what happened, because he remembered that there was a murder there.

“I was shopping and across the street and I saw the smoke. That’s when they blocked us in with the trucks. I thought they could not control the fire but they did,” he said.

Hemlani said that at one point the flames rose to approximately 20-25 feet.

According to DPS Traffic public information officer Rose Hocog, who was at the scene, the call came in to their office about a structure fire in Chalan Piao, and units were dispatched to the scene right away.

In addition to the DPS officers, members of the Aircraft Rescue and Firefighters Facility, Commonwealth Utilities Corp., and the Emergency Management Office rushed down to the scene to lend their assistance. According to Hocog, all of the agencies routinely work together in these types of situations.

“We work together with AARF. They are very instrumental in helping us out in situations like this when we need extra manpower and extra engines. We call them out when we need their assistance just like we do with CUC to cut the power off so our guys can go in. We call EMO so they can activate the American Red Cross and every other agency that are a part of the RAC team so they can come down and assist our guys as well, so it is a team effort.”