MIRI – A blaze swept through a longhouse block at the Sungai Asap resettlement scheme near the Bakun Dam in central Sarawak today in yet another fire outbreak in the area housing over 15,000 natives who were uprooted by the dam’s construction in 1997.
Labelled ‘Block B’, the longhouse named Uma Nyaving was reduced to rubble in the blaze that took place mid-morning today.
The block houses more than a hundred people living in 15 double-storey living quarters built adjoining one another.
The Sarawak Fire and Rescue Department said all the 15 living units there were totally burned.
“Firefighters from our fire station in Belaga and the voluntary firefighters in Sungai Asap managed to stop the flames from spreading to the adjacent blocks (A and C).
“The longhouse that got burnt was made of wooden structure,” said the department in a press release.
This is the umpteenth time that fire outbreaks have occurred in the Sungai Asap settlement located about 50km downstream of the Bakun Dam.
The scheme had 15 longhouses that were built in 1997 to house about 15,000 natives who were displaced.
The dam project flooded an area of more than 65,000 acres (the size of more than 65,000 football fields combined).
The last devastating fire in Sungai Asap happened only last year.
On July 12 last year, the longhouse Uma Sambop was razed to the ground, leaving more than 700 homeless. – The Vibes, September 11, 2023
