Firefighters are seen inspecting the remains of one of the houses after extinguishing the flames that destroyed 9 houses in Kampung Bintawa Hilir on Jan 4, 2024.

KUCHING, Jan 5: Forty-four individuals were left homeless after a fire damaged nine houses in Kampung Bintawa Hilir yesterday (Jan 4).

According to a report from the Sarawak Fire and Rescue Department (Bomba) operations centre, they received a call regarding the incident at 1.33am from Malaysia Emergency Rescue Services (MERS) 999 and firefighters from the Petra Jaya, Padungan, and Tabuan Jaya stations was rushed to the location.

The operations commander reported that in the incident, seven houses were destroyed while two others were 30 per cent damaged; no casualties were reported.

It took firefighters about one hour to put out the flames, and they managed to prevent it from spreading to other nearby structures.

The cause of the flame and total loss are still under investigation. — DayakDaily