Longhouse fire leaves 40 homeless
KAPIT: A fire on Wednesday destroyed 13 doors of Rumah Nuang Unging at Km1.5 Jalan Bukit Goram, leaving around 40 residents homeless.
Witnesses said at its height the fire, which started around 7.30pm, sent a fireball into the sky.
Tuai Rumah Nuang Unging said the flames took a very short time to reduce the wooden block, built in the 1960s, to ashes.
“Altogether there were 36 doors consisting of old and new longhouses on both sides of Sungai Kapit. The new longhouse was built across the river to accommodate the growing population.
“Over 300 people live here. I live in the new longhouse and when I heard of the fire, I rushed over to switch off the power to prevent electric shock,” he said.
“The weather’s so dry that the fire engulfed the longhouse within minutes. Since the end of January until now there’s no rainfall and the wooden structures were completely burnt within minutes.”
He added that three doors were unoccupied because the owners had moved to the new longhouse across river.
Police along with Fire and Rescue Department ( Bomba) personnel in two fire engines arrived at the scene around 7.55pm.
Firefighters led by Bomba officer Irrwandy Tugor were forced to park by the roadside as the longhouse was built on a steep slope by the riverbank.
As news began to spread about the fire, curious onlookers arrived, causing a traffic jam and the police had to step in to control the crowd.
Among those present at the scene was Kapit Deputy Resident ( social development) Zul Usop, who stayed until midnight with the fire victims.
It is believed that the fire might have started from one of the kitchens.