The fire at its height destroying the Kelabit longhouse in Long Peluan.
MIRI: A 19-door Kelabit longhouse block in Long Peluan, Ulu Baram has been razed to the ground in a midnight fire on Thursday, leaving 19 families homeless.
The wooden structure was destroyed in 15 minutes, but residents managed to escape alive with the bare clothes on their bodies.
A lorry and four 4WD vehicles were also destroyed in the devastating fire. Losses could not be immediately ascertained.
A second block of the longhouse with 12 families was unaffected.
The wooden longhouse was the old longhouse of Datu Ose Murang, former deputy State Secretary and Curtin University of Technology Malaysia chairman and Alena Murang, Sarawak’s international sape player and ambassador.
A devastated Ose told The Borneo Post that it was a nightmare to them but, fortunately, there was no casualties in this midnight fire, which was likely to be caused by electrical wiring issue.
Ose was on his way to Australia Friday morning when informed of the incident, and sent a heartfelt message to the affected families, telling them to be strong together to rise above the ashes to rebuild.
Addressing the affected families on his home village, he said what has happened was a nightmare and called on them all to join their hearts and souls together in prayer, and to gain strength from each other and God in moving forward.
“Let us rise up together and rebuild ourselves from the ashes. At this time we remember the Lord saying, ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven'”, he said, quoting Matthew 5:3 from the Bible.
Long Peluan longhouse is under the Baram parliamentary constituency represented by incumbent Anyi Ngau and state constituency of Telang Usan under Dennis Ngau.
The longhouse before the fire.