Floods: Mantin businessman helps out with free wiring checks for Taman Sri Muda victims

PUTRAJAYA: "Abang (brother), can you come and inspect the wiring of my house? Abang, is it true that you do the check for free? ".

That was among the questions received by Jegan Perumal, 32, who offered free electrical wiring inspection service to flood victims in Taman Sri Muda, Shah Alam last week. Taman Sri Muda was among the worst hit areas in the severe flood disaster that befell the country over the weekend starting Dec 17.

The director of JP Global Engineering, who offered the free service through TikTok and social media, was willing to close his business operations in Mantin, Negeri Sembilan, for five days starting Dec 21 to focus on this voluntary service.

"I saw many people doing various volunteer tasks such as cleaning houses, delivering food and so on. I thought the aspect of electrical safety was also very important as I did not know about the level of electrical damage after the floods," he told Bernama when contacted, today.

According to Jegan, who hails from Gua Musang, Kelantan, travelling alone to provide the service, he has inspected the wiring system in 52 houses in Taman Sri Muda so far with the highest inspection rate at 28 houses a day on Dec 25.

He said the service provided was based on the requests of individuals who contacted him, and that he was still receiving requests for free inspections from the Sepang area and some as far away as Bentong, Pahang.

Jegan said that he allocated a minimum of 15 minutes to inspect each house using a socket tester and that some houses took up to two hours (to be checked) depending on the level of electrical damage.

The socket tester is for testing wiring in a socket to determine if it is in good condition or otherwise.

"Based on the inspections done, almost 90 per cent of the houses did not comply with the electrical standards set, that is, on average they connect too many electrical appliances to one socket, especially in the kitchen.

"Overloading can cause short circuits and be the main cause of fires," said Jegan, who also provided advisory service for households found to be using excessive electrical capacity.

While offering his help, Jegan said he witnessed firsthand the cooperation and solidarity that existed among the dozens of volunteers who went down to the ground to help flood victims, like doing cleaning work, delivering food and clothes.

"They may not know each other but every service given was done sincerely and wholeheartedly.

"There were also flood victims who offered money to pay for my services even though they themselves were facing difficulties, but after I explained to them that it was free, they were very grateful to me," said Jegan.

-- BERNAMA