Rats may have caused fire at Kek Lok Si shrine, says trustee

 

A K-9 team from the Fire and Rescue Department deployed in the investigation into the morning fire at one of the shrines that caught fire at the Kek Lok Si temple complex in Air Itam, Penang, today. (Unit K9 Bomba Facebook pic)

GEORGE TOWN: Rodents are suspected to be behind a fire at the Kek Lok Si Temple in Ayer Itam here earlier this morning, a trustee said today.

Steven Ooi, one of the temple’s trustees, said temple workers suspect that a rat – or two – might have knocked over an oil lamp before a Kuan Yin statue at the prayer hall.

He said that, fortunately, the hall that caught fire was quite far from the prayer hall next door that housed the three seated Buddhas.

Ooi said the larger temple complex, the pagoda and other structures were safe and undamaged.

“We would like to tell everyone that the whole temple is practically intact. We’ve been flooded with calls asking if the whole temple site has been damaged. It has not.

“News reports claiming that 70% of the entire temple complex has been razed is not true,” he told FMT.

The blaze at its height early this morning.

Earlier today, firemen reported that 70% of a temple within the complex was burnt.

The fire was brought under control a few minutes after the fire brigade arrived at 2.56am.

Ooi said the shrine housed a wooden statue of Kuan Yin and the burnt area was only big enough to fit three regular-sized people.

He said temple workers briefed him this evening on what took place. He said the workers believed that it was a rodent problem after seeing footage from the many closed-circuit television cameras at the temple complex.

He said the affected area had no food offerings and was one of many shrines leading up to the pagoda.

Kek Lok Si, Hokkien for the Temple of Supreme Bliss, is touted to be the largest Buddhist temple complex in the country. It was completed 116 years ago, with work starting 14 years earlier in 1891.

A seven-storey pagoda featuring 10,000 alabaster and bronze statues of Buddha is the main highlight of the temple, followed by the 36.5m Kuan Yin statue which stands on a hill.

The statue was built in the late 1990s after an older plaster statue of Kuan Yin caught fire. - FMT