Footage has emerged of a harrowing incident that took place earlier this year in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, when a large LED billboard caught fire, trapping nine maintenance workers. Thankfully, all workers were able to escape the tower of smoke, but not without minor burns.
“We were stuck on top of the billboard when the fire broke out. I thought I would not survive. There was smoke everywhere,” one worker told Malaysian publication The Star. “Luckily, the wind blew the smoke away from us, and that gave us a chance to climb down.”
The fire is believed to have been started by a short-circuit, as apparently the billboard was not powered down prior to maintenance. The workers were able to escape the blaze once firefighters arrived at the scene.
“The fire saw nine victims, and all have been successfully saved and handed over to medical officers for further action,” commented Selangor Fire and Rescue Department Assistant Director (Operations) Ahmad Mukhlis Mokhtar.
“Most LED screens are made using flammable materials – most notably the plastics – which can burn easily, go gooey and drip, and generate what can be toxic smoke. There are now jobs, particularly those involving large public indoor spaces like airports, that require fire safety built into the materials,” writes digital signage expert Dave Haynes for Sixteen:Nine. “There are lots of comments on Linkedin from people who have seen reports of this incident and attributed it to the inevitable outcome of buying cheap displays. Probably, but we don’t really know.”
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