One unconscious, four survive after inhaling toxic gas from rotten fish in Kota Kinabalu

KOTA KINABALU - One out of five men who were exposed to toxic gas believed to have come from a container filled with rotten fish fell unconscious in the incident in Sepanggar, here, last night.

In the 8pm incident, Jirol Carumpi, 23, who was found unconscious and his friends Jolito Araza, 38, Riswan dan Muhammad Mufli, both 27, and Shahril, 19, were immediately rushed to the hospital.

Kota Kinabalu Fire and Rescue station (BBP) chief Ordine Gilu said they received a distress call 8.26pm and 15 personnel were deployed to the scene.

“Upon arrival, they found that the toxic gas came from a container filled with rotten fish.

“The Hazardous Materials Unit team (Hazmat) conducted a search in the vicinity to trace the Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS), but did not detect any chemical substances,” he said in a statement, today.

He said the Hazmat unit then found the five victims involved and evacuated them to a safe location.

“There were five victims, one of them was unconscious and was rushed to the hospital in an ambulance to be treated. The four others were also transported to the hospital by the Emergency Services Assistance Unit (ERMS) and Malaysian Civil Defence Force (APM),” he said.

The operation ended at 10.08pm, he added.