SAVING THE END UNITS: Firemen preventing the blaze from spreading to three end units at the 16-door longhouse Rumah Kupon in Sungai Itop.
SARATOK: Sixteen-door longhouse Rumah Kupon in Sungai Itop area, about 9 km from here, was gutted by fire yesterday morning.
Thirteen units of the semi-concrete, double-storey longhouse were completely destroyed in the fire which broke out around 9.45am.
When firemen arrived at the scene around 10am, the fire had engulfed almost a third of the house, and hence accorded priority to save several unaffected end units.
As their was no piped water supply at the longhouse, the firemen used river water to douse the flames and only succeeded to put out the fire in about 45 minutes.
Though three end units were saved from the fire, many items including electrical goods were damaged by the water.
According to the longhouse chief, Tuai Rumah Kupon Ingka, he was out in town when the fire broke out.
Most of the residents were either away in their working place or in school, leaving the elderly and young children at home, he added.
He, however, counted themselves fortunate as there were no casualties nor injuries among the 181 residents in the fire.