AFTERMATH: Smoke still billowing from the burnt longhouse a day after it was gutted by fire.
SIBU: Fifty villagers including 10 children were made homeless when Rumah Tony in Tg Latap was gutted by fire last Sunday afternoon.
GONE: A fire victim sheds tears in front of what remained of her longhouse.
Eight nearby houses on stilts were also damaged by the 3pm fire.
No casualty was reported.
Longhouse chief Tony Ili said the fire could have started from a short-circuit.
“All the families bolted from their house, leaving behind their belongings when the fire was noticed,” he told reporters at the scene yesterday morning.
“Only a few birth certificates were saved from the inferno, and they could not salvage other belongings in time as the fire spread too quickly.”
The longhouse chief said total loss was about RM700,000.
He said neighbours helped get water from a monsoon drain in front of the burning longhouse to put out the fire.
Tony, who works for a private company in Sibu as a manager, said the Fire and Rescue Department arrived at about 4pm and the fire was put out at about 6pm.
He said the victims were putting up with nearby relatives.
The eight-door longhouse was still under loan at RM10,000 per door under the Sarawak Housing Commission.
“The 20-year-old longhouse was renovated last year,” he lamented, adding that the renovation started two years ago.
Most of the victims worked as labourers in Sibu.
Sibu Resident Sim Kok Kee, Malaysian Red Crescent (MRC) Sibu chapter, and Dudong assemblyman Yap Hoi Liong came with assistance.
Yap advised the victims to lodge a report over the incident.
Yesterday morning, he returned to the scene of the fire to hand over to the victims used clothes, food, milk and feeding bottles.