SIBURAN: “What else can we do? It’s fate. We have to be patient,” said Yusuf Rosli, 59, after his house at Kampung Paya Mebi was destroyed by a fire yesterday.
What is even more heart breaking is that the incident happened just before the Ramadan month.
Yusuf’s family now has to put up in the house of a relative for a while.
He told Suara Sarawak just before the fire, he was in the kitchen and about to prepare lunch.
At first, he wanted to follow his wife to attend a wedding ceremony that took place in the village.
Later, he decided not to go due to leg pain caused by gout.
“When I was about to light the stove, I heard a sizzling sound coming out of the stove and a fire started to ignite.
“I tried to remove the gas cylinder head but to no avail because it was too hard,” he explained.
Yusuf tried and tried to remove the gas cylinder head but failed.
His wife returned from the wedding just in time to pull him away from the gas cylinder.By then, he had already suffered burns on his left arm.
Yusuf said the poor network connection at the time made it difficult for his neighbours to contact the Fire and Rescue Department
“Fortunately, there was a relative, who could call the department,” he said.
Yusuf added that the villagers, who had just finished attending the wedding, saw the smoke. They helped to put out the fire and save his property.
Yusuf explained that the villagers also tried to bring their own water jets and fire extinguishers to put out the fire.
But the fire spread quickly from the kitchen to the bedroom and living room of his house and destroyed some of the furniture and a television set.
Even though ersonal documents such as his identity card and driver’s licence were also destroyed, what was more important to Yusuf was that all his family members were safe.
Meanwhile, Yusuf’s next-door neighbour, Hartono Salus, 49, said a group of villagers who saw the incident rushed to help put out the fire.
They sprang into action by spraying water on the walls of his house and Yusuf’s house to stop the fire from spreading.
Hartono said the villagers also broke the windows of Yusuf’s house to release the heat and pressure from the fire.
He added that since the fire was still raging, he quickly prepared as much water as possible to put it out.
“As soon as the firefighters arrived, they instructed me to immediately turn off the main electrical switch. I was worried the fire would spread through the wires to my house.
“Fortunately, during the incident, there were no winds. So the fire did not spread to my house,” he explained.
