SIMANGGANG, Sept 26: Victims from a recent longhouse fire at Rh Naga Rasau in Engkilili received aid from Simanggang Charity Unity, today.
Led by Sabrina Nayah Joshua, the team handed over food and clothes for more than 70 people who were left homeless after the incident on Sept 16.
Despite using their fire extinguisher, villagers could not save their double storey 18-door longhouse from being razed to the ground as the fire spread very fast, on top of the strong wind that day.
Fire and Rescue department (Bomba) received a distress call from MERS 999 at 5.13pm.
More than 20 firefighters from Sri Aman and Betong fire stations were despatched to the scene, including two teams of volunteer firefighters from Engkilili and Lubok Antu.
On top of the current road condition, the longhouse is also located some 53km away from the nearest fire station.
Firefighters also faced difficulties when they found there was no water from the existing fire hydrant, prompting them to change their method to relay pumping by stretching the hose as far as 800 feet from two fire engines to a nearby drain (open water source).
They also faced communication constraints as there was no access including ts Government Integrated Radio Network (GIRN).-DayakDaily
