DEVASTATED: A father (covering his face) being consoled by relatives as he grieves over his 10-year-old son who perished in a fire at his two-storey house at Jalan Padang Kerbau, Kampung Pujut.
Friday morning.
Firemen ready to remove the body (inside the body bag) from the scene.
A file picture of Mohd Farisikmal (seated front row, circled).
MIRI: A 10-year-old boy was burnt to death in a fire at a two-storey house at Jalan Padang Kerbau, Kampung Pujut, early Friday morning.
Miri Fire and Rescue Department chief Law Poh Kong said the victim in the 6am fire was identified as Mohd Farisikmal Taib whose body was burnt beyond recognition.
He was believed to have been sleeping on the first floor of the house and fell down – when the floor gave way – to the garage on the ground floor which was also used as a car workshop.
Law said five people comprising three adults and two children including Mohd Farisikmal were at home when the fire broke out.
Two fire engines from Miri and Lopeng fire stations led by Zone 6 Fire and Rescue Department’s senior fire superintendent II Ahmad Nizam Sapaiee were sent to the scene upon being alerted at 6.02am. The operation ended at 7.30am.
A search for Mohd Farisikmal was made by the firemen after the family revealed that he was nowhere to be found after the fire broke out.
They found his body between two cars parked underneath the double-storey half concrete wooden house around 8am.
The charred remains were transported to Miri Hospital morgue for a post mortem.
One of the neighbours recalled that she and other (neighbours) heard Mohd Farisikmal shouting for help inside the house when the house was burning but were helpless to do anything.
The cause of the fire is being investigated.
Four cars and a motorcycle were also destroyed in the incident.
It was learnt that the ground floor of the house (where the cars were parked) had been converted into a workshop.
According to Taip Pa’ee, 51, the father of Mohd Farisikmal, prior to the incident, he and his son were asleep on the first floor of the house.
“I was awakened by the burning smell and saw plumes of smokes shrouding the room. I couldn’t see anything at that point so I shouted ‘Run…run…’,” said Taip.
He escaped from the burning house by smashing the room windows and jumping from the first floor of the house.
“At that point, I thought my son (Mohd Farisikmal) had ran to safety earlier as I couldn’t find him anywhere in the room,” Taib said.
Taip’s brother, Malik Pa’ee, 32, was outside the house trying to douse the flames with the help of neighbours.
The Borneo Post was told that two other family members of the victims – the deceased’s elder sister Nur Faizzatul Taib,11, and his grandmother, Jenah Brahim, 74 – were not in the house when the fire broke out as they had gone out around 5.30am to sell ‘kuih’.
Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) secretary general Datuk Sebastian Ting visited the victims of the fire to console them.