Woman, 44, burnt to death in house fire

KOTA KINABALU: A 44-year-old woman perished in a fire that destroyed her wooden house at remote Kg Barayong Torodong in the east coast Kinabatangan district.

Firemen, who took nearly three hours to reach the village, found the charred remains of Juny Ambilai in the living room of the house at around 1am Thursday (Dec 28), a spokesman for the state Fire and Rescue Services Department said.

The spokesman said other members of the family had managed to escape the fire that broke out at around 10pm on Wednesday (Dec 27).

He said they received a distress call at 10.10pm and a team from the Kota Kinabatangan fire station was despatched immediately to the village, located some 133km from the station.

He said the victim's body was handed over to the police for further investigation while a probe into the cause of the fire was ongoing.

Meanwhile, Kinabatangan firemen also came to the rescue of 21 passengers in an express bus that veered off the road and crashed in Telupid at around 1am Thursday.

The spokesman said that five of the 21 passengers were injured while the others including the driver were unhurt.