Three houses burnt in fire that broke out after family squabble
Posted on September 18, 2011, Sunday
KUCHING: A family squabble led to the son threatening his parents before torching their house in Kenyalang Park yesterday afternoon.
- FIGHTING THE BLAZE: Firemen dousing the fire.
The 1.15pm incident also razed two neighbouring houses on either side of the couple’s house, but no one was hurt as all the occupants fled at the onset of the fire.
Neighbours, who asked not to be named, spoke of hearing a shouting match between the couple and their younger son prior to the incident.
“The family is always quarrelling with each other, so I did not really think much about it until I saw the couple run out from their house, looking frightened,” said a woman resident.
According to a source, the couple, in their 60s, headed to the police station to report that their son had threatened to kill them with a machete, and burn their single-storey house.
While at the police station, they received a call from a neighbour informing them a fire had broken out at their house and was spreading rapidly.
Firefighters arrived at the scene to battle the blaze, which had spread to two adjoining houses, with frantic neighbours trying to salvage whatever they could.
There was no sign of the couple’s younger son who was believed to have fled following the incident, and has not been seen since.
His elder brother, who returned home after learning of what had happened, declined to be interviewed.
One affected neighbour, who identified herself as Madam Wong, said she was only able to save her wedding portrait, a television set and two gas cylinders from the house her family had been renting for the past year.
The other affected neighbour, surnamed Sim, said he had just arrived home from having lunch at a nearby shop when he saw smoke billowing from the house next door and immediately instructed his own family members to evacuate.
Padungan fire station chief Mohd Raffy Saibi said firefighters arrived at the scene at 1.30pm after a call was received at 1.24pm.
The fire was brought under control at 2.09pm and extinguished within an hour.
“A total of 28 personnel from the Padungan, Batu Lintang and Tabuan Jaya fire stations were involved in the operation. One house was destroyed and two others 80 per cent razed,” he said, adding the cause of the fire was being investigated.
