Rubbish among causes of rapid spread of fire at Kampung Tanjung Baru - Residents

One of the victims Midzpar Haibil, 43, said his house was located quite far from an unoccupied house where the fire was believed to have started, however, scattered rubbish caused the fire to spread rapidly and razed his house.

The hotel staff said he came to know there was a fire after hearing screams from outside his rented house.

"I only managed to save some documents and got the children to run out of the house.

"Previously, there was gotong-royong to clean the rubbish, but it will still be there," he told Bernama when met at a relief centre at Luyang hall here today.

The 4.32 am fire had caused 50 people to be evacuated to the relief centre and was the third such occurrence involving the same village over a short period of time.

Housewife Rasidah Haibil, 41, also lost the house she rented for RM750 a month.

"We had to jump from the back door of the house (into the sea) and apparently the sea water was rising at that time," said the mother of four.