MIRI: A seafood shop and workers’ house at Jalan Miri-Pujut here were destroyed in a fire around 11.30 am yesterday.
The fire was discovered by a worker, Santi Ukok, 40, who lived behind the shop.
Santi said that during the fire she and her two children aged 6 months old and one year old were resting in the living room.
She only knew that there was a fire when she heard a loud explosion coming from the kitchen of the shop.
“I then went out to check but was surprised to see thick smoke billowing from the kitchen of the shop.
“Without hesitation, I rushed to our house to collect important documents and carried by two children out of the house,” she said when met at the scene.
Santi, who is a single mother, said her other two children aged seven and 15 years were at school at the time of the fire.
According to Santi members of the public tried desperately to extinguish the fire using fire extinguishers but failed.
Meanwhile, a team of firefighters from the Miri and Lopeng Fire and Rescue Department rushed to the scene after receiving a distress call at 11.37am.
The team led by Senior Assistant Superintendent Assang Langir with 13 firemen took about 15 minutes to put out the fire before the operation ended at 1.20pm.
No human casualty was reported and the cause of the fire is still under investigation.
