Kota Kinabalu: Two sisters were killed after being trapped in their grandmother's house in Likas, here, which was razed on Friday.Primary Four pupil Ching Li Ying, 10, and nine-year-old sister Vivian Ching Nyuk Thing aimlessly tried to escape, as they searched for a way out through the plumes of smoke and inferno that quickly consumed the two-storey house at Taman Maju Kota, opposite SM Kian Kok.
A man, identified only as Pau, who was visiting his mother's house then, said he heard faint cries from the girls and could only watch helplessly as the fire grew.
After firefighters eventually put out the blaze about 5pm, they found the girls' charred bodies in their uncle's first-floor room, clasped in each other's arms.
The grandmother, who had been taking care of the girls since they were infants, was headed to a shop nearby with her second son - whose room the girls' charred remains were found - to buy some medication when her eldest granddaughter rang her, shortly after 2pm.
"They had yet to reach the shop when Li Ying telephoned," said the woman's younger sister, Madam Chong, before adding, "she was screaming the house was on fire."
"She told her to take the keys and bring her sister down and get out through the backdoor," Chong said, adding the girls, both straight-A pupils, were studying on the first floor when she left home. Neighbours claimed the cries by the girls stopped after a short while.
It was learnt the girls stayed at their grandmother's as it was nearer to school at SJKC St James, which is also in Likas. Their parents, Ching Chan Siong and Voo Chun Min, sold noodles in Lido and lived at Jalan Bundusan.
The parents came shortly after being informed of the incident and broke down at the sight of the house engulfed by fire while family members had to block the girls' grandmother who tried to charge into the house to save her only grandchildren.
The girls' grandfather went to Kuching for the Qing Ming, a Chinese tradition to honour and pray for their ancestors. He has yet to be informed of his granddaughters' demise.
The fire also destroyed a van and the neighbour's Toyota Ninja four-wheel drive vehicle.
Meanwhile, 24 firemen in three engines rushed to the scene following a distress call. There were complaints from the public that they arrived late despite a distress call at about 2.40pm.
Officer in-Charge of the Kota Kinabalu station, Ibnu Sahad said based on the operations room record, a distress call on the incident was only received at 2.53pm, which was made by a woman.
In another fire, an empty house caught on fire at Kg Likas, here earlier at about 3.30am. An elderly man living next door, Utobangsa Utomala, in his 60s, claimed he heard an explosion in the house before it burst into flames.
