Photo from the Bakun Paradise Facebook page shows Uma Bawang residents searching for their belongings in the ruins.
SIBU: The federal government has been called on to prioritise the construction of a fire station at the Sungai Asap resettlement area in Belaga District.
Uma Belor resident Danny Bungan said the fire that consumed two blocks of Uma Bawang on Monday was the sixth such incident in the resettlement area.
“If there is a nearby fire station at least it can reduce the damage. Please consider this immediately,” he said in a Facebook post yesterday.
Asie Richter from Uma Badeng said her longhouse was among those destroyed by fire on June 20, 2017.
She said the nearest fire station is in Bintulu, which is over 100km from Sungai Asap.
“With potholes on the road and the long journey from Bintulu, everything would be razed to the ground by the time firemen arrived whenever such incidents occurred,” she said.
Uma Bawang resident Awing Igo said that six units from the two blocks affected by the fire on Monday belonged to his brother and sisters.
He said the longhouse was divided into blocks A to F, and that those destroyed in the fire were blocks D and E.
There are 15 longhouses in Sungai Asap – a resettlement area for those affected by the Bakun Dam.