Squatters in Tawau, Sabah, the state’s third largest city, have experienced another blaze through their makeshift homes. The fire in Kampung Titingan left 60 homes destroyed, and an octogenarian dead after the flames ripped through the settlement at just past midnight earlier today.
Reports from The Star point to arson, with an evicted tenant exacting revenge by reportedly burning the landlord’s home down. The fire quickly spread and turned deadly.
New Straits Times reports that the victim, Sabon Ola, 82, was taken from the fire alive, but later pronounced dead at the hospital.
Receiving a call at 12:55am, the Fire and Rescue department dispatched 26 firemen to fight the blaze, that had spread over a 5000-square meter area. The fire was brought under control by 2:30am and extinguished completely just after 4am.
The blaze comes after an earlier incident in April that say over 100 homes destroyed in a similar incident, with 1,000 residents left homeless. Other squatter areas throughout the city have also experienced similar tragedies. In July, a colony of sea-based squatters saw their community go up in flames, and in June, another settlement experienced a blaze that saw 40 homes destroyed.
Sounds like the time is nigh that the squatters of Tawau were given safer housing conditions.
