NO CASUALTIES: The dormitory fire at its height.
BAU: A mid-day blaze destroyed the wooden upper floor of a boys’ dormitory at SMK Lake here yesterday.
No injuries were reported in the incident as the two-storey dormitory, which houses 33 students, was empty when the fire broke out around noon.
A total of 14 personnel from the Fire and Rescue Services Department here rushed to the scene at 12.08pm following a distress call and immediately began working to prevent the blaze from spreading.
Its chief Zainal Alias said his men were able to bring the situation under control at 12.30pm before putting out the last of the flames about 30 minutes later.
“The dormitory is being used by Form 4 and Form 6 students. I was informed that the Form 4 boys were on holiday while the Form 6 boys were attending classes when the fire broke out,” he said.
Zainal added that the entire wooden upper floor was destroyed while about 20 per cent of the concrete lower floor was affected.
The cause of the incident is under investigation, while total loss has yet to be ascertained.
Meanwhile in Kuching, an unoccupied double-storey house at Kampung Sourabaya Ulu was reduced to ashes after it was razed by fire early yesterday morning.
The incident occurred around 2.15am when residents spotted the structure engulfed in flames and immediately contacted firemen for help.
Personnel from the Petra Jaya and Tabuan Jaya fire stations were immediately despatched to the scene but could do nothing much to save the structure.
The house owner, 55-year-old Awang Hashim Awang Sahari, rushed to the scene from the house he was staying in at Kampung Semariang Batu upon learning of the incident from a friend, but arrived to discover it had been reduced to ashes.
He later told reporters that the razed house had been empty since he moved to his current house over five years ago, and only contained several pieces of furniture.
The pensioner suspected that the fire could have been started by ‘mischievous’ persons, as it was the second time since Hari Raya that a fire had broken out at the empty house.
“Prior to this, a fire damaged part of the kitchen but was put out by my neighbours before it could spread to other parts of the house, hence my suspicion,” said Awang Hashim, who estimated his losses at RM100,000.