Kuala Lumpur: Explosion from Hampshire Park building into our Apartment

17th floor on the right, blackened by the explosion and subsequent fire
17th floor on the left -- our apartment

A window frame flew out from the 17th floor on top of this car which had a driver in it.
The driver is in the hospital, lucky to have escaped with only arm burns.

Back of the car

A small taste of the glass that had been on the ground last night

Explosion site of Hampshire Park 17th floor apartment: Living room with wall exposed. Furniture miraculously preserved. The flames seemed to have stayed on the ceiling. The explosion punched a hole in the roof above and the floor below.

Inspector sitting and chilling in the exploded apartment. Taking it easy.

Up close.

Balcony railing hanging off, waiting for a dangerous fall. No one seems in a rush to get it down.

View from our balcony

Floor to Ceiling Glass Windows/Sliding Door Frame Detached from outer Wall, just plain popped out due to explosion impact

Balcony door popped off

Neighbor's window burst, even further from explosion

Another view of our sliding glass door popped off

Transom at ceiling is ready to fall, just a bit of a jiggle
and it looks like it and its glass will fall down

May 9, 2011

At 7pm last night, a huge explosion burst into our 17th floor apartment, blowing all the glass doors/windows on our porch out. One entire glass door/window frame to the balcony, floor to ceiling, came apart from the wall, no longer affixed to the building. The other door collapsed out onto the porch. The blast blew broken glass into our house. People blocks away felt the blast, it was so strong. It shook buses nearby.

We were wishing Mary a Happy Mother's Day on skype in our pajamas at the time , and I screamed then hung up on them when the explosive impact burst through our glass doors and windows. What went through my and Ken's minds was that the only kind of explosion that blows in 17th floor windows is one from the ground and probably one from a car bomb. We thought the downstairs floors might be seriously damaged and cause the building to collapse. So, the faster we got downstairs, the more chance we had to survive.

I grabbed the kids, all screaming and my post-9-11 plan for an emergency in a high rise kicked in. No shoes were put on. No elevators were taken. We ran for the staircase, with Ken grabbing our keys, wallet, and picking up some shorts on the run out for naked Griffin. We scrambled to find the nearest staircase which, it turns out, was hit by the blast so all the windows on each staircase floor had been blown in, spreading a layer of glass shards all over the floor.

I hesitated before having my kids ran barefoot on glass then said RUN DOWNSTAIRS! They ran like bats out of hell, so fast that Ken and I got nervous because we were worried that the bottom floors may have been blown out or on fire. I screamed for them to wait but there was no stopping the kids. They ran ahead, with Griffin flying down the stairs, stepping on glass the whole way. With each floor, I'd yell to them, "We're going to be Okay, We're going to be Okay..." not so sure myself. The electricity was out at the bottom making it a more harrowing and dark descent, with us completely losing sight of Griffin.

We landed on the bottom floor, running out to the freight garage seeing even more glass on the ground and security guards coming to take us away from the building. But, as we stepped out we looked ahead and didn't see Griffin anywhere! We started panicking again, yelling "Griffin! Griffin!" Ken said he was faced with a Sophie's Choice, not knowing if he should run ahead to safety or go back in the building that still seemed like a danger to us.

The security guard lied and said they'd taken Griffin out to safety. So we ran ahead, yelling Griffin's name but realized Griffin was not outside and still inside! Then we turned and saw the source of the explosion -- it came from the building next door, not from our building. The 17th floor apartment of the next door building had exploded and flames continued to pour out even now, in a steady flow.

Then, we heard Griffin's voice and he was up on the second floor pool area yelling for us. He was completely freaked out but luckily a young woman had found him and yelled that she would bring him downstairs. He was very scared, having become separated from us, by himself, landing on the second floor which had collected 30 floors of glass by the pool. Turns out he had followed the young woman running down the stairs ahead of us when she mistakenly exited to the pool instead of one floor below that, to the ground floor.

We were all so relieved to be out of the building, but we were still scared. The kids were crying because their feet were covered in blood. We carried them away from the building because we thought the neighboring high rise looked like it might go up in flames. We carried the kids and went straight to the Corus Hotel next door which, even some distance away, had also had some windows blown out from the force of the explosion. A couple men helped carry the kids over the strewn glass and into the hotel. We collapsed on the hotel couches in our pajamas, barefoot, with Ken also topless trying to check us in.

I took the kids to the public bathroom there and soaked their feet in water, trying to get the biggest pieces of glass out. As Ken waited in line to check us in, a man cut in front of him and Ken almost lashed out at the man. But, he restrained himself and took us upstairs to rooms where we thoroughly washed and removed the tinier shards of glass from our feet.

Abraham didn't speak the rest of the night, except to say he was scared in the dark and wanted a Mommy snuggle.

Griffin was tormented by catastrophic thoughts of buildings collapsing and other safety fears for our return to our apartment. He started hitting his head with his hand to stop the scary thoughts. I snuggled him, holding his hands down to calm him. He went to sleep after a while, in bed with Ken.

Alice's reaction was to repeatedly ask "What am I going to wear tomorrow? Will the principal let me into school without a uniform? What about my girl scouts uniform? I can't go to girl scouts without my uniform!"

I slept with Alice and Abraham in bed. No one slept well. Alice would wake up and sit bolt upright asking more questions. Abraham would reach out and grab for me every so often.

As they slept, Ken returned to the building without telling me just to check it out and thought it would be blocked off by police. While they had stopped the fire in the neighboring building, probably by turning off the gas supply, there were still police and firemen around. Really, just sitting around. No formal inspection seemed to be going on. Ken expected that, as in NYC, there would probably be a day or more where everyone had to leave the building while serious damage and safety was determined.

No, in fact, he just slipped under the caution tape and walked right in. No one was stopping him or anyone else from walking in. Most everyone had gone back up to their apartments in our two towers. And, even though the glass door to the elevator room was broken, the guard told him it was fine to use the elevator to go up. Ken went upstairs, scared, and walked in to find all the windows/doors blown open, glass on the floor (not from our glass but blown in by the neighboring building), and a coating of plaster most everywhere, probably from where the wall of glass on our balcony became detached from the actual wall. He grabbed everyone's school uniforms, toothbrushes, and rushed out with a suitcase, back to the hotel.

We struggled with the decision of whether or not to send them to school the next morning, with a 6am wakeup after such a horrible night. What a good decision we made to send them to school. Everyone at the bus stop had been through the same scary experience, and they completely understood. Alice's friend brought her a hair brush and rubber band so she could tie her hair back. And, she brought Alice a girl scouts tshirt, so she'd fit in at girl scouts. The nurse at school checked all their feet, deeming them fine although finding one deep cut on Griffin's toe.

Ken and I returned to our apartment. It was scary to return but once we carefully looked at all the damage, we felt better. It seemed like a livable space, for the most part, although the detached 10 by 20 foot glass window/door frame heading onto our balcony was unsettling and seemed precarious, like it might fall if jostled. Click HERE to see when we first returned home for Part 1 video of damage inside our apartment. We pushed the glass door back in place on one side and are just living with the gap between the glass and wall on the other.

Click HERE for an overview of the post-explosion site and its repercussions next door, viewed from our balcony. And click HERE for a video of the slow, laid-back response of the officials come to inspect the apartment where the explosion originated. The explosion happened at 7pm last nite. They came at 11am this morning. You can see the photo above with one of the inspectors sitting and relaxing on the furniture, with the balcony railing hanging off the side of the building, ready to fall and injury someone.

A 61-year-old British man working at AET Tanker Holdings Sdn Bhd lived in the apartment with the gas explosion. He ran out with 70% burns and is in the hospital now. We are amazed he was able to get out alive. Update: Sadly, the man passed away this week.

Update: Alice is still limping from a cut bothering her and exhausted. Abraham was very frightened to return home, sobbing if I even walked into a neighboring room in our house, away from him. He slept hard, though, once in bed. A couple weeks later, Abraham continues to have nightmares and separation anxiety, refusing to go to his room or the bathroom alone.