PASARAYA KHELASS DESTROYED IN MIDNIGHT FIRE

7th.August 2012

PASARAYA KHELASS located at the junction of Jalan Kee Ann and Jalan Pasar Baru was destroyed in a fire last night.

The local fire services receive a distress call at 11.50pm last night and rushed to the scene only to find the former Lido cinema (was originaly the El Dorado Cinema) converted to a emporium for the past 10 years was burning to the ground. With the textile, supermarket articles, clothing etc. the fire was intense until once of the walls of the old building collapsed.

Also destroyed were the 10 fruit stalls in front of Khelass and 2 food stalls. It took 47 fire personnel and 8 fire engines from 3 fire stations around Melaka to control the blaze which was put out at about 1.26am.

It was a pity that Khelass was burnt down early this morning. The owners of Khelass only changed the roof of the emporium about 6 months ago before this fire occurred.

Hopefully, the store is covered under fire insurance and we look forward to some positive development in this site.

Pity that the years old structure of the former Lido Cinema was destroyed. Lido Cinema served the Malaccan public with Shaw Production movies from the late 1960's until 1980's. Personnally, I lived a stone's throw from the former Lido Cinema in my teen years and saw numerous Shaw movies in Lido before it was converted to this current emporium in late 1980's. I feel sad that this had happened.