Blaze destroys two houses, leaves 20 homeless
SIBU: Fire razed two stilted wooden houses in Kampung Bahagia Jaya to the ground here yesterday morning, rendering 20 people homeless and causing losses estimated at around RM80,000.
Five motorcycles parked in front of the houses and four sewing machines were reported destroyed.
One of the houses was home to a family of 12 while the other, a family of eight.
Ahmad Daud, 51, said he had been renting accommodation at the site for the last five years with his family of 12 members.
He believed the fi re had started from the kitchen on the ground floor while everyone was asleep.
“Because the fire spread very fast, I didn’t have any time to salvage anything,” he lamented.
He said following a head count, he realised his five-month- old granddaughter was still inside the house. He rushed back into the house to save her, injuring himself slightly in the process.
His wife later sent him to the hospital for observation.
Sibu Fire and Rescue Department (Bomba) Station received a distress call at 12.23am and despatched fi refighters in two fi re- engines to the site.
However, by the time they arrived at 12.32am, the two houses were already completely razed to the ground.
This was the third fi re incident in Kampung Bahagia Jaya this year.
Meanwhile, in an unrelated case, a double-storey terrace corner unit in Ulu Sungei Merah caught fire at about 10.30am yesterday.
Eight firefighters in a fireengine managed to bring the fi re under control by 12.30pm.
The owner of the house was in town when a neighbour notified him about the sight of thick smoke coming out from the living room of his house.
He estimated the damage to the living room at 50 per cent.
No casualties were reported.