ABOUT 200 Penan natives were left homeless when their longhouse in the remote Baram district in northern Sarawak was destroyed in a fire.
The Sarawak Fire and Rescue Department said the Rumah Ba Abang Long Sepatai longhouse was completely razed to the ground.
"We received a distress call late last night. The journey to the location took us seven hours using four wheel drive vehicles through difficult terrain.
"Our teams from Marudi Bomba station were deployed to the site," said the department.
The only land access to the location is via logging camps and the rugged mud roads are in very bad condition.
The latest fire incident is yet another serious longhouse fire that keeps recurring in rural Sarawak.
It was only on Sept 27 that a fire razed another Baram longhouse, leaving 330 folks homeless.
The longhouse called Rumah Niga, located along Sungai Tinjar some 120kms inland from Miri, had 46 houses built adjoining each other. - November 4, 2024
