PPR homes for Sandakan fire victims – Raymond

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SANDAKAN: Twenty families who were made homeless after fire destroyed 18 wooden houses at Kampung Sim-Sim on Friday will be placed at the People Housing Project (PPR) homes around the district.

Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Seri Panglima Raymond Tan Shu Kiah said he would discuss the issue with the relevant authorities to see if there were any available PPR houses around this district and order them to be given to the fire victims with immediate effect.

“The tragic fire incident last Friday has left 144 people homeless and most of them are now seeking temporary shelter at the district mosque located near the fire scene.

“Therefore, we are trying to give the best comfort to the fire victims by checking any available PPR houses around this district as we know houses are important for them at the moment.

“Apart from that, we are also going to identify school children and victims who have lost their identification documents, so that we can assist them based on their needs,” he said.

Raymond, who is also Tanjung Papat assemblyman where Kampung Sim-Sim is under his constituency, visited the fire victims at the district mosque yesterday morning.

Commenting on rebuilding the victims’ houses, Raymond said the process needed time as the local authority had to inspect and strategically plan for the purpose.

“We need to check the proper and suitable location to rebuild those fire victims’ houses. We will discuss with the Sandakan Municipal Council for the purpose as we need it to be built better and more organised than before in order to prevent similar incident,” he added.

Raymond also hoped  that the school children affected by the fire could continue going to school as usual and the school necessities would be provided as soon as possible.