Neighbours shocked to find out siblings died in fire, thought no one was at home

Limat Sawal, 53, who lives 100 metres from the house said he assumed no one was in the house because he did not see the children nor the family's Perodua Kancil there.

"Usually, we see the four children playing outside the house and there is a car but at the time of the incident, the car was not there, so we thought there was no one at home.

"We didn't think that the victims were inside and only realised there were in there when their mother came home and told us that her children were still inside," he told reporters when met at the scene, today.

Limat said he was the first one to notice the fire and rallied the villagers to put it out using water from a nearby tap.

"It happened so fast...I am heartbroken. I could not bring myself to look at the children who were around my grandson's age. Their mother is on good terms with the villagers and often says hello, her children always played here," he said.

A fellow villager Idris Sehan, 76, said he found out about the incident after performing the tarawih prayer.

"I was shocked when they told me about it...the house belongs to my cousin who has been renting it to the family for the past four years," he said.

In the 7.49 pm incident, Puteri Aisyah Tenko To, eight, Mohd Hakim, six, Mustakim, four, and Fatihah Aisyah, three, were believed to have tried to save themselves by hiding in the bathroom in the kitchen.