By Jenne Lajiun
Victim wishes her sewing machine, oven were saved from fire
PUTATAN: With all her belongings reduced to ashes, Marlina Marlan, 59, wonders how she could put food on the table and feed her family in the coming days ahead.
“It is hard to think. Everything is gone. All savings that I had kept in the house - they are all gone,” she told The Borneo Post yesterday.
She is among those seeking temporary shelter at the Putatan district hall after her house was burnt to the ground during last Friday’s fire.
She thinks of her sewing machine and her oven, and says that if only she was able to salvage them, she would still be able to help her family make ends meet.
“I could bake biscuits and sell them. I could sew and earn for a living,” she said.
Unfortunately, everything, including her precious oven and sewing machine were destroyed in the fire that ravaged 55 houses and left over 300 people homeless at Kampung Pasir Putih here last Friday.
She said she was not home that day.
“I was visiting a relative who was ill.”
Those at home were her husband, whom she said was ill at that time, and her grandchildren.
Her grandson, Mohazim Putra Mohd Hisham, nine, recalled the horrific event, and said he was on his way to school but turned back home when he realized he had forgotten something.
“It was then that I saw the smoke and quickly woke everyone up. I pulled them out of the house and alerted everyone,” he said.
His quick thinking probably saved the lives of three people who were still in the house at that time, said Marlina.
Mohazim said he had lost all his books, his school shoes and school uniforms.
Looking forlorn, he spoke of two of his cats, Oning and Miming, which perished in the fire. “We have one cat left,” he said. He also said he was sad to lose his handphone, a gadget he had just received.
Marlina said they had been promised a new house by the village head, but did not know when this would materialize.
“We will be staying in Kinarut at my family’s house at the time being,” she said.
She felt the garbage issue and the close proximity of houses were the main attributing factors that had caused the fire to spread swiftly and mercilessly.
“Some people just throw the rubbish they bring home from the market near their houses and allow them to pile up. It pains me to see how they behave,” she said of the attitude of some of her neighbours prior to the unfortunate event.
“I was telling people that the our living condition was a fire hazard, and it came true.”
Nevertheless, she said she was satisfied with the assistance rendered to all the victims at the temporary shelter.
“They give us all our needs here. But this is the last day we will be given food and I was told tomorrow onwards, we have to start fending for ourselves,” she said.
She added that those without any place to go to were told they were welcome to stay on at the hall.
“But as for my family, we will move to Kinarut and stay with another family member,” she said.
Asked if there was anything else she would need to help her get back on her toes, she asked only for two things: a sewing machine and an oven.
“If I can have those, then there will be a bit of hope.”