A 61-year-old British consultant was injured in an explosion at his 17th floor condominium in Persiaran Hampshire, off Jalan Ampang, last night.
The blast shattered windows on the 17th and 16th floors of the Hampshire Park Condominium, sending shards of glass and chunks of concrete raining down on the ground, up to 200m away from the building. Even the windows of the nearby Corus Hotel were not spared.
Paul Christopher Lovell, who is attached to AET Tanker Holdings Sdn Bhd, was believed to have been badly injured and was warded in the intensive care unit of the Prince Court Hospital here.
Kuala Lumpur Fire and Rescue Department deputy chief Azizan Ismail said the victim moved into the unit on Friday and lived alone.
Azizan said the blast could have been caused by the man's unfamiliarity with the stove, which was connected to the centralised natural gas piping system.
"The main gas valve was open," he said, adding that the unit was destroyed, except for the bathroom.
"We prevented the fire from spreading to the adjacent units and it took us an hour to put it out."
Even the lift doors on the 17th floor were dented by the explosion.
Firemen had to use the stairs to get to the unit, and a skylift to fight the fire.
Resident Daniela Semeraro, 42, said she was watching television with her husband in their unit on the 12th floor of the same block when the explosion happened.
"We were shocked to hear the loud bang. All the glass windows shattered and even the tiles on the walls fell off.
"We immediately ran out and came down using the stairs," she said.
