MALAYSIA – At least 500 people were rendered homeless after fire destroyed 50 wooden houses at Kampung Bangau-Bangau water settlement in Semporna Saturday morning, fire officials said.
The blaze ocurred just 10 days after fire destroyed 250 wooden stilt houses in the same area, leaving more than 2,000 people homeless.
Sabah Fire Services Department spokesman Mohd Affendi Ramin said no one was injured in the fire that broke out at about 1:40 a.m. on Saturday.
It took firefighters almost two hours to control the blaze, whose origin was still being investigated.
Twenty personnel including few from Kunak district were dispatched to the after the fire department received the distress call early dawn today.
Last March 25, a bigger blaze wiped out 500 houses in the area but no casualties were reported.
Authorities said a 17-year-old alleged torched his family home, triggering the blaze that destroyed 500 houses.
In 2003, several hundred houses were destroyed when a fire swept through the settlement then. – BusinessNewsAsia.com