Campbell Shopping Complex Fire

The Campbell Shopping Complex fire was a major disaster in Malaysia which took place on 8 April 1976 at Jalan Campbell (now Jalan Dang Wangi), Kuala Lumpur. The entire shopping complex including its 20-storey office tower block was completely destroyed in a fire. It was Malaysia's first towering inferno and its worst fire disaster involving a high-rise building to date. The fire, which started at 10:30 pm, lasted for nearly 30 hours, claiming the life of one victim, Yap Leong Hoem, 59, as well as the total losses of RM50 million. The cause of the fire was an electrical short circuit.

The building was burnt for nearly 30 hours and fortunately, it did not collapse entirely as one section of the podium had collapsed due to the intense heat. The building was only three years old at the time of the blaze, having been opened in 1973, which was at that time Kuala Lumpur's first high-rise shopping complex. It was kept under repair and reconstructed for a few years after the blaze before it was reopened to the public around 1979.

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