Fire renders 12 homeless, ruins wedding preparations

TELUPID: Twelve persons in a family were made homeless after their semi-concrete house in Kampung Bauto near here, was razed to the ground early yesterday.

The Sandakan Zone Fire and Rescue Department was alerted of the blaze at 6.11am and despatched a team of firemen to the scene.

The house was already destroyed by the time they reached the location at 7.45am and the firefighting operation ended at 9.45am.

A group of family friends had stayed in the house for the night after celebrating Harvest Festival on Saturday.

The blaze is believed to have started in the kitchen and the Fire and Rescue Department is investigating to establish the cause of the incident.

There were no immediate reports of casualties.

Meanwhile, in Labuan a fire ruined wedding preparations and razed a double-storey house to the ground in Simpang Pangkalan, Kampung Sungai Bedaun yesterday morning.

The house belonged to Kason Bakar who lived in it together with her son, Murshidi Moktar, his wife and their four children.

The incident occurred at about 10am and despite the heavy rain, strong winds only served to fan the flames and nothing was saved.

Only one of Mudshidi’s children was at home as the rest of the family had gone to Kuala Penyu to attend a relative’s wedding.

His son first noticed the fire when he saw one of the rooms on the ground floor engulfed in flames.

A team of 21 firefighters and three officers arrived at the scene at 10.23am. The three fire engines were from the Jawa, Labuan and Layang-Layangan stations.

They managed to put the fire under control 20 minutes later, said a statement from the Labuan Fire and Rescue Services Department.

Village chief of Sungai Bedaun, Latif Amdan, whose mother-in-law owned the house, said Murshidi’s son had already bought items from Pulau Pinang for his wedding in September but all were destroyed in the fire.