KOTA KINABALU: A 51-year-old man sustained minor burns in a noon fire that destroyed 12 houses in the Filipino refugee resettlement scheme in Telipok, about 13km from here.
The victim, Hasan Alam, a resident in the area, suffered burns to his shoulder and was given first aid treatment by the Emergency Medical Rescue Services (EMRS) personnel at the scene.
State Fire and Rescue Services Department spokesman said that the fire wiped out 12 wooden houses in the closely knit settlement housing a few hundred houses.
The fire was believed to have started at one of the houses at around noon Tuesday (Feb 6) and spread quickly through the houses.
The spokesman said they received a distress call at 12.45pm and three fire teams from Kota Kinabalu and neighbouring Tuaran were rushed to the scene.
Firemen brought the fire under control by 1.40pm and subsequently extinguished it completely by 3.50pm.
More than 100 people from at least 20 families were estimated to have been affected by the fire at the refugee settlement set up in the 1980s for Filipinos who fled to Sabah during the 1970s civil war in southern Philippines.
Telipok is among five Filipino refugee re-settlement areas in Sabah.
