Long Kerangan fire leaves over 70 longhouse folk homeless
MIRI: Over 70 residents of a 17door longhouse in Kampung Long Kerangan, Ulu Baram, are now homeless following a fire on Wednesday night.
When contacted, Fire and Rescue (Bomba) Marudi station chief Maureen Sim said the number could rise once full details had been gathered from the victims.
She said it took firefighters about nine hours to reach the location, located 219km away.
“After receiving information via WhatsApp regarding the incident, a team of three Bomba Marudi station members, using a four-wheel drive vehicle (4WD), proceeded to the location at approximately 7.23am and the firefighters arrived at the location at approximately 3.35pm.
“Upon arrival at the scene, it was found that the fire involved a 17-door longhouse with nonpermanent structure, and it was completely burnt in the incident that took place around 8.45pm on Wednesday,” she said in a statement.
She said the fire was fully extinguished by the time the firefighters reached the scene.
The team confirmed with the victims that the fire only destroyed their property, she said.
“The Marudi firefighting team assisted the Fire Investigation Division of the the Bomba Zone 6 Miri, consisting of two officers who were also present, to carry out investigations at the scene. After completing the task, the team then left for the station at about 5pm.
“This operation is considered quite challenging because its location was very far from the station and the firefighters had to drive through a logging track to get to the location,” said Sim.
She added that the lack of telecommunications coverage at the scene was also a challenge for the firefighters to deliver information about the incident in a timely manner.