Thank You Allah

I am renegading on my promise to Akmal of Wiseup that I will be posting a post tonight on a certain topic that he as a Kelantanese will find it amusing. The reason for not keeping to the promise is due to what happened and what nearly happened today the 3rd of December 2008. I would like to share this post with you all so that similar near disaster can be avoided by being more vigilant and do the needful and avoid doing the mistake that I made today.
Several previous experiences made me very sensitive to small booming sounds coming from my kitchen. My kitchen hob had been acting up. Many a time small booming sound occurred on the stove that was used to cook something over it. The boom will extinguish the flame of the stove and somebody had to rush to it and turn it off and re lit the stove if the cooking need to be continued.
We were getting scared as the occurrence was getting more often as the days passed. Once we felt we can't tolerate it anymore and we went to Kota Bharu to look for a new hob to replace the one that we had. The supplier that we bought the hob from sold us a new hob after I have given them the size of the hole that was occupied by the old hob on top of the kitchen cabinet. The old hole was 18 inches by 32 inches. The female staff told me the new hob would fit the hole. When I put the new hob onto the cabinet, the whole hob managed to slid through it. It was too small for that hole. So we took the new hob back to the supplier and told her to replace the hob with a bigger one while we continued to use the old one with more caution. The supplier said they have no stock and will order a new one from KL. After a week they told us the factory wasn't producing the size anymore and refunded my money. We know we had to look elsewhere for a new hob that will fit the hole size. Alternatively we could to modify the cabinet so as to be able to fit a smaller hob. I was procrastinating on changing the hob as no such booms occurred lately.

Today after the Subuh prayers, I was shocked to hear a loud boom coming from the direction of my kitchen. It was quite loud but it seemed to come from somewhere farther than my kitchen. Nevertheless I ran to my kitchen to see if anything was amiss there. Nothing seemed to be wrong as my wife had not been using the kitchen yet for the day. Then only I realized the sound may have come from one of the neighbour's house behind mine. I heard some wailing sound from the house behind mine. I rushed for the door to go and see only to be stopped by my wife who wanted me to put on my shirt first as I was clad only in my sarong.

There was already many people at my neighbours house. The other neighbours had heard the sound too and they all rushed over to help. When I reached the house, lots of debris littered even the living room where the neighbour's son was lying in shock. He had a long narrow gash on his shin. The kitchen was in mess with even more debris of the ceiling that caved in. The kitchen cabinet's doors were flung out. Fortunately there was no fire. The explosion must have been caused by gas leakage from his kitchen hob. The gas accumulated in the kitchen cabinets below the hob must have ignited when the wife lighted one of the stoves to boil some water.

One day earlier they have serviced their hob as it was not functioning well. The servicing was done by somebody from Tendong. I didn't ask if the serviceman was a professional or not. I guess he must be as Tendong is some 5 kilometers from our place.

Anyway the damage to my neighbours property was considered mild since only some ceilings and glass panes were blown out. Worse thing could have happened or even lives could be lost if a fire had occurred. The son was taken to hospital for shock and had his wound treated. The mother had scalding on one of her foot and had it treated with minyak gamat. Everything happened while the husband was at work at his school in Tendong.

That incident sparked us into action to replace our own sometimes malfunctioning hob. We left for Kota Bharu at eleven o'clock to buy a new hob. Before leaving I messaged Mat Cendana whom I promised to meet today that I will be late in coming home as I had something urgent to do in Kota Bharu. I specially told him to make some adjustment so that I will be home by the time he reached Pasir Mas. He gave me the OK signal via sms.

The first place that we stopped was in Pasir Pekan. The outlet did not have the size that we needed. The salesperson was helpful and called his other branch in Kota Bharu which confirmed that they have stock of the required size. So off we went to the other branch and we were happy to know they have one of the Electrolux brand. The best offer was RM800 after they have knocked off all the odd numbers after the number eight. Well we were quite happy to know that there was still the right size around and promised to come back later.

At another outlet we found another unit of the size I wanted and it was from China. The net price was RM1300 but we can only get it in a weeks time as they only have the display unit. Anyway it was too pricey compared to the earlier model.

The next stop was at the shop that built our kitchen cabinet. They have a unit from China too but with only 2 stoves and they were selling at RM450. It was a real bargain. All the other models mentioned above had three burners. Anyway we had never used more than 2 burners in all of our life so two burners should suffice. Further more this unit comes with a safety feature built into it, gas will stop should the flame be extinguished by any cause. The salesgirl vouched to it as she said she was using one at home. We took her words for it and bought the unit but we had to wait for 3 PM before the item could be fetched from their store. They couldn't get it any earlier as it was lunch time.

By 2.30 PM we received a call telling us the unit had arrived and we could collect it. Since we were in the midst of buying some shirts for granddaughter Balkis, we couldn't go immediately but collected them later at 3.00 PM. By 4.00 PM we were home and I started the installation of the hob. Since the new hob needed a slightly bigger hole than the one originally available, I had to do some filing to enlarge it. After an application of some silicone sealant around the edges of the hole, the hob was finally slid into place.

Next it was time to fit the gas hose to the gas inlet of the hob. This was a really difficult job as I forgot to buy a new hose to replace the old one which must have lost its elasticity and thus would not slide onto the protruded part where the hose can be clipped to. My failure to put the hose on made me do the cardinal sin of applying a light layer of grease on the inlet pipe that will be attached to the hose. Even with the grease applied, the hose did not go all the way but some three quarters of the way, just long enough for me to place the screw clip on. We lighted the stove using the automatic sparking mechanism powered by a single battery. Everything worked fine. My wife was happy with the new hob and immediately heated up some food for dinner.

Some friends came to the house to discuss about a problem we faced for the coming gathering of our Class of 68 from Sultan Ibrahim Pasir Mas. When they approached the new Principal of the school, they got a shock when they were informed that the hall was under renovation and should the renovation be done, there will be a teachers meeting at the hall on the same day of the gathering, the 27th of December. A call to another well respected friend made the hall became available again as planned. Sometimes it pays to have the right connection to get something done.

It was around 9.00 PM that I decided to start work on the new post that I promised Akmal. Since our 15 moths old granddaughter Balkis was still active at that time, I decided to do my work at the dining table near the kitchen. It was then that I sensed the smell of cooking gas. It was very faint initially but got stronger as I focused more on trying to smell it. I called out to the other half to confirm and when she did, I know for sure I had a gas leakage in my kitchen. The first thing I did was to remove the cap on top of the cylinder. Having done that, I then open the cabinet that was fitted with the hob and I can smell the strong smell of methane gas. The hose was dangling freely with the open end away from the connecting tube. The small clipped had lost its grip after the thread of the screw had worn out. I immediately opened up all the windows to let whatever remaining gas out and let in fresh air to dilute the gas concentration.

Oh God, if only one of us had lighted a match or switched on the sparking mechanism to light the stove, disaster would have struck upon us. God knows what might have happened.

Thank you Allah. You have been merciful and saved us this time.

I must apologize to Mat Cendana as I had forgotten all about him and the promise to meet him earlier. Mat, see you tomorrow.