25 'RUMAH KONGSI' DESTROYED IN PULAU PERHENTIAN FIRE

KUALA BESUT, May 1 (Bernama) -- A total of 25 workers' houses (rumah kongsi), occupied by 81 construction workers, were destroyed in a fire on Pulau Perhentian Kecil here this morning.

Terengganu Fire and Rescue Department (JBPM) assistant director of operations Muhammad Basri Kamarazaman said six officers and members from the Besut Fire and Rescue Station (BBP) were deployed to the scene upon receiving a report at 9.09 am.

"The firefighters had to board a boat from Kuala Besut to the location of the incident on Pulau Perhentian Kecil, which is approximately 30 kilometres (km) away from the mainland.

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"As soon as we arrived, we found that 25 of the 33 rumah kongsi had been affected, and the fire was still raging as the houses were located close together," he said when contacted today.

He said that the work of controlling the fire was helped because there were fire hydrants in the area.

Muhammad Basri said the quick action of his team, assisted by the Emergency Response Team (ERT), managed to prevent the eight remaining shared lodgings in the area from also being razed.

"Firefighters took about 30 minutes to control and extinguish the fire, which also involved a small forest nearby," he said.

He said there were no loss of lives, while the cause of the fire and value of the loss are still under investigation.

Meanwhile, Muhammad Basri said that over 70 per cent of a fire at the garbage disposal site in Kampung Sungai Ikan, near Tepoh in Kuala Nerus, has been extinguished in an operation that entered its sixth day.

He said in this firefighting operation, his team had successfully controlled the blaze in an area covering ​​four hectares out of the six hectares that has been burning since last Friday.

He said today's operation commenced at 9 am and involved four fire engines and nine firefighters from the Kuala Nerus BBP and Marang BBP.

"Efforts to control the fire are challenging due to the water source being quite a distance from the location, in addition to the heavy piles of garbage and dry weather.

-- BERNAMA