20140403 Malaysia Fire Destroys Longhouse, Five Other Houses Near Sibu
Malaysia Apr 07 2014 “Houses”
Dead : dead 0 or unknown Burnout : 1 to 29 Injured : injured 0 or unknown
Fire Destroys Longhouse, Five Other Houses Near Sibu
Updated: 2014-04-03-12:00
SIBU, April 3 (Bernama) — A fire destroyed an 18-door longhouse and five other houses in Sungai Engkalat near here today, leaving 124 people homeless.
The fire, which occurred at 8.45 am, razed the 100-year-old Rh Adin Jawa wooden longhouse, said Sibu Fire and Rescue Service chief Abdul Mutalif Rashid.
Twelve firemen from the Sungai Merah fire station and nine from the Sibu Central fire station rushed to the scene, he said, adding that he and six more firemen also went there.
“When we arrived shortly, the fire was already spreading. We managed to bring it under control at 9.53 am, using water from the nearby Igan River,” he said.
He said the fire spread fast because the longhouse and the other houses were built very close together. No one was injured, he added.
A resident and an Iban community leader, Pemanca Stanley Geramong, said he had just finished his breakfast in Sibu town and was about to go for work at the Sibu District Office when a relative telephoned him of the fire.
He said it was fortunate that the firemen managed to control the fire from spreading to another row of longhouses and individual houses.
“We have altogether 70 longhouse units and individual houses here. Most of the residents are civil servants and workers of private companies in the town. “We lost a lot of things, including tradition Iban family heirlooms,” he said.
He said it was believed that a young boy left in the care of his grandmother started the fire when he accidentally burnt a mattress in his family unit in the middle of the longhouse.
— BERNAMA
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