A firefighter works to put out the fire.
SARIKEI: A total of 14 people from two families were left with nothing but the clothes on their backs after a fire destroyed their rented house at Jalan Abdul Rahman Keria here in the wee hours yesterday.
All the occupants, aged three to 72, managed to flee the house when the fire broke out at 12.40am but they were unable to salvage anything as the flames spread very fast and took less than three minutes to engulf the entire wooden structure.
Sarikei Fire and Rescue Department (Bomba) chief Mahmudin Narudin said a distress call came in at 12.44am and a team of 13 firefighters in one engine was dispatched to the scene.
He said when the firefighters arrived at the scene three minutes’ later, the fire was already at its height.
The firefighters focused their operation on dousing the raging fire and preventing it from spreading to nearby houses.
“Of course, as usual their priority was to ensure all the occupants had evacuated the house,” he stressed.
The firefighters took about one hour to get the fire under control, but only completed the operation around 2.30am.
The cause of the fire has yet to be ascertained.
Two adventure event participants lost and found
KUCHING: Two participants of an adventure challenge held at Salcra Bajo Training Centre in Lundu, who were reported missing around 10.53am yesterday, were found by the search and rescue team around 1.50pm on the same day.
A Fire and Rescue Department (Bomba) statement said the victims were found safe and the search operation ceased at 2pm.
Earlier, one of the victims managed to call 999 to inform them that they have lost their way along the designated tracks.
Later, Bomba personnel tried to make further contact with the victims – one female and one male – but failed.
A team from Lundu fire station was dispatched to the scene. They were later joined by a representative of the event organiser and two other Bomba personnel Chong Bui Chian and Sophi Idris who were taking part in the challenge.
The challenge featured a duathlon, trail run and MTB.