KUANTAN: Panic spread among the occupants of a kongsi house here today after a fire broke out near a sawmill in Kampung Gambang along Jalan Kuantan-Maran.
The occupants of more than 50 people, mostly women and young children, from 16 families escaped to safety with only clothes on their backs during the 9am incident.
Some managed to grab important documents before fleeing from the kongsi which was destroyed by the fire.
Jamilah Talib, 46, said the fire spread fast and her only concern was to escape to a safety.
"I panicked and could not think of anything else or safe our valuables. I could only think of taking my children and running out of the burning house.
"My husband and other men were at work at the sawmill. There were screams for everyone to leave the kongsi,” she said.
No one was reportedly injured in the incident.
Her husband Mohd Affendy Abdullah, 51, said he rushed home when she called and informed about the fire.
"The kongsi that we have been staying for the past 11 years is no more and I am not sure where we are going to do now," he said.
Meanwhile, Indera Mahkota Fire and Rescue department operations chief Mohd Hilmi Kashfi Mat Zali said 14 firemen in two engines and 20 volunteer firefighters were deployed to the scene.
He said two rows of wooden house were completely destroyed and firemen took about an hour to bring the fire under control.