DOUBLE TRAGEDY: Flat residents, along with firemen and police personnel, gather around the covered bodies of the siblings following the incident.
KUCHING: Two young siblings left unattended at home were killed when a fire broke out at their second-storey flat at Tabuan Park late yesterday evening.
The two were identified as Mohd Nurazwan Syah, aged five and his six-year-old sister Natasha Harun.
The incident occurred around 7.15pm when their mother left them alone at home while she ran an errand at a grocery shop not far from the flat complex.
According to residents, the fire appeared to have started not long after the mother had left and that the flames spread quickly across the living room and part of the kitchen.
Firemen from the Tabuan Jaya station, located across the road from the complex, rushed to the scene as soon as they received a distress call.
However, despite putting out the flames in only a matter of minutes, both children were found dead, believed due to excessive smoke inhalation, under a mattress in their bedroom.
The mother, meanwhile, arrived back soon after only to learn of her children’s tragic end.
Her 28-year-old husband, who was at his workplace in Semariang at the time, rushed back as soon as he learned of the incident.
Police officers from the Tabuan Jaya station were also on hand to investigate the incident, and later transported the bodies of the siblings to the hospital for a post mortem.
The cause of the fire is under investigation.