No accommodation provided for Sandakan fire victims, DAP chips in to help lessen burden

1 Nov 2021

By Wartawan Nabalu News

SANDAKAN: Learning that the Sandakan fire victims were not provided accommodation although they have lost their homes has driven Sabah DAP to offer contributions in order to help lessen their burden.

The assistance given to them was in the form of clothing, food items and monetary.

Sabah DAP acting chief who is also the assemblyman for Tanjong Papat, Datuk Frankie Poon revealed that all these victims only managed to put up a simple accommodation assisted by friends and relatives.

“The Welfare Department could only provide some monetary assistance to each household. Unfortunately, no accommodation will be provided for them.

“We gave some old clothing and food provisions as well as a little pocket money for the two households whose belongings went up in the fire,” he said in a statement today.

According to Poon, these victims also received assistance from the Red Crescent in food baskets and general health care.

“We know we couldn’t replace the life that was lost, but we try to ensure that their present predicaments could be alleviated with our donations in kind and in cash. We wish them all the best,” he said.

On Oct 29, a that broke out at a seven-storey building which claimed the life of a one-year-old child.

Poon said there is a stairway to access the rooftop of the seven-storey building but some claimed that a metal gate has been put up at the fifth floor, blocking access to the rooftop.

“If the gate had not been put up, at least the smoke would have gone up to the upper floor and escaped into the air,” he was quoted as saying in a statement earlier.

Poon has urged the Sandakan City Council to check on all buildings to ensure that no one would put a gate at the stairway of any multistorey building to avoid reoccurrence of similar incident and to prevent loss of lives.