29 workers made homeless when their quarters razed
MIRI: Twenty nine people including 24 Indonesians were made homeless when their 16- door workers’ quarters in Kuala Baram were razed by fire at 9.15am yesterday.
The occupants were all working at a nearby wood factory during the fire.
Angela Wilson, 25, who lives a few metres away from the gutted quarters, said she first saw the fire coming from one of the units when she was putting up her laundry to dry.
At first I thought that maybe the worker who lived there was burning something, but when I saw the fire getting bigger, I ran as fast as I could to the company’s foreman to alert him. Angela Wilson, witness
“At first I thought that maybe the worker who lived there was burning something, but when I saw the fire getting bigger, I ran as fast as I could to the company’s foreman to alert him.
“I ran again to tell the workers, especially the Indonesians who were working, about the fire,” Angela said when met at the scene yesterday.
A victim, Pauline Francis, 50, said the fire left her with nothing except for the clothes she was wearing that morning.
She said she had been working at the company for 13 years and had since lived there.
“I lived alone as my husband passed away a few years ago. I am fortunate because I take all important documents such as identity card and birth cert everywhere I go,” she said.
Another victim, Bajai Linang, 56 said he only managed to save his gas cylinder.
He said he had gone to work about early yesterday and received the bad news about 9.30am.
“I was working so I did not know what happened outside even though our quarters are located a few metres away. When my friend phoned me about the fire, I immediately ran to my quarters at the other end of the block. I could only save my gas cylinder as the fire was spreading fast,” he added.
Eleven firemen and two fire engines from Lopeng Fire and Rescue Station and nine firemen in one engine from Miri Fire and Rescue Station arrived at the scene at about 9.40am after they received the distress call at 9.23am.
They managed to control the fire at 9.55am.