KANGAR: A married couple panicked when they saw a storeroom behind a neighbour's house go up in flames in a fire this afternoon.
In the 1.20pm incident on Lorong Kampung Dian, Jalan Padang Behor, Behor Pulai, shop assistant Salwa Ibrahim, 53, said she smelled something burning from outside her house, and upon checking, found a wooden storeroom behind the next door neighbour's house engulfed in flames.
"At first I thought it was just the burning of paddy straw, but I was shocked when I saw the storeroom burning.
"It so happened my family members were visiting, so one of them quickly called the authorities to report the fire.
"I almost panicked, looking at the fire, and I thought about my husband, who has a stroke. I am so thankful no one was injured. We may not have been able to save ourselves and our house could have caught fire as well, if the fire was not snuffed out," she said when met here yesterday.
Her husband Mahtar Hassan, 57, meanwhile said he heard a minor explosion and asked his wife to see what it was.
The sound they heard came from the storeroom being razed by the flames, which had also burnt the front of the neighbour's car.
"It brought back grim memories of when my family's car and mine were destroyed in a fire last year in Padang Besar.
"We were then visiting a relative's house for a kenduri, when we found out our three cars had been burnt from a fire emanating from another crashed vehicle," he reminisced.
Mahtar said the neighbour, a lecturer at one of the higher learning institutions here, has been informed of the incident, and the latter had accepted what had happened.
Meanwhile, Kangar Fire and Rescue Department chief Assistant Superintendent Zaharul Amin Ahmad said they received a distress call at 1.20pm, after which three fire trucks with 10 firemen and officers rushed to the scene.
"As soon as we arrived, we found the wooden structure, believed to be a store functioning as a garage, on fire.
"We managed to bring the fire under control by 2.04pm, and we put out the fire completely at 2.30pm," he said here yesterday.
Zaharul said they were still investigating the actual cause of the fire, but have not ruled out the possibility it may have been caused by the burning of paddy straws carried out nearby.
There were no casualties or injuries. The losses have yet to be ascertained.