Family hosted second reunion dinner

PETALING JAYA: The Lim family had hosted a second Chinese New Year reunion dinner for their relatives in Klang Valley.

Relative Victor Goh, 29, said the family was from Penang and had gone back to the state for the festive celebration.

“We returned to the Klang Valley last Mon­day,” he said at the Serdang Hospital mortuary, adding that on Friday, the family called relatives over for the dinner.

“A day before the tragedy, they visited my home in Klang,” said Goh, who is Goh Bee Khim’s nephew.

Housewife Goh, 51, and her husband, Lim Ah Kok, 58, as well as their two sons were killed in the fire yesterday.

Goh’s niece, Suzette Chong, 34, said the family was very close knit and spent a lot of time together.

“I have just spent Christmas and New Year with her and other relatives in Taiwan,” she said.

It is learnt that Lim, a real estate agent, was an active member of the USJ 2 Residents Association and highly involved in local community’s activities.

The couple’s eldest daughter, who was not at home during the fire, had seemed calm upon returning home but burst into tears as relatives comforted her.

She was later accompanied by fire­­­men into the house to collect some belongings.

Neighbour Mohd Dzamalkhan Abdullah Sani, 41, who alerted firemen about the blaze, said he could hear the family screaming for help as he rushed outside.

He said his wife had woken him at around 5.30am after she realised that the house was on fire.

“When we rushed outside, we could hear them screaming for help but could not do anything as the fire was too big,” he said, describing the family as good neighbours who were friendly and helpful.

Another neighbour, Wong Wern Ching, 21, said: “I woke my father up but by the time we rushed outside, one of our neighbours told us that the screams had stopped.”

Wong is taking care of the family’s pet dogs that survived the fire.