Investigators marking the house, which is believed to have started the fire, with a yellow line.
SANDAKAN: Some 70 wooden houses in a squatter village at Kampung DiSayang, Batu Sapi here were gutted by fire on Thursday night.
According to Village Head Amirbangsa Bin Noh, he was alerted on the incident around 10.30pm by villagers.
“When I reached at the scene, some houses were already razed by fire due to the close distance of the houses,” he said.
Initial information gathered from dwellers whose houses were razed by the fire revealed that the fire started when a mentally ill man torched his own family house, Amirbangsa said.
One of the squatter dwellers Maimun Binti Busu, 52, said she was sleeping with her five children and four grandchildren when the fire started.
“ I heard people screaming and saw the fire spreading rapidly from house to house. The fire started some 10 meters away from my house.
“However, my house was located next to the road, and it was easy for us to transfer belongings to a safer place. My family members around Batu Sapi came over to help after they were alerted of the incident,” she to The Borneo Post.
Maimun’s house was 40 percent burnt, but around 70 houses located next to her’s were totally razed by the fire.
Some affected villagers are expected to seek shelter at the Taman Batu Sapi People Housing Project mini hall, which is adjacent to the fire scene.
The Sandakan Fire and Rescue Department received a distress call at 11.03pm and rushed to the scene with 23 personnel led by Nor Azizi Bin Noh. The operation to put out the fire ended at 4.25am yesterday.