DESTROYED: Firefighters putting out the fire that destroyed the double-storey wooden house at Kampung Rampayan Laut in Menggatal yesterday.
KOTA KINABALU: A double-storey timber house at Kampung Rampayan Laut in Menggatal was gutted by fire here yesterday.
The house, believed occupied by 12 people, was completely destroyed when the fire broke out around 8am.
According to one of the occupants, Mumin Tamin, 34, he was watching television with his two siblings and three children, aged two and six, when he smelled of something burning.
“Suddenly our house was engulfed by smoke and without any further thought, I yelled out to my siblings asking them to bring the children out of the house,” he said when met at the scene yesterday.
Mumin said they did not manage to retrieve any belonging.
He was however grateful that none of his family members was hurt in the incident.
Meanwhile, an officer of the Fire and Rescue Department manning the operation centre, when contacted, said the department received a distress call at 8.15am and immediately deployed four fire engines to the scene.
“We arrived at the scene at 8.21am and put the fire out by 8.55am.
“The cause of the fire and the total loss incurred are still under investigation,” he said.