Published on: Thursday, December 11, 2008 |
Tuaran: The district police here is maintaining a 24-hour surveillance on the area surrounding the affected units of the double-storey wooden shophouses that were gutted in a fire in Tamparuli township on Tuesday morning.
District police chief DSP Suhaimi Hj. Wiro said such measure was to bar outsiders from entering the prohibited area, except for the premise owners or fire victims.
"The police will carry out the 24-hour surveillance until the investigations to ascertain the cause of the fire is completed.
"Hence, we have put up a police yellow line on the affected area to prevent public from going into the area and not to disturb the police duty and Fire Rescue Services Department that are carrying out investigation in the area," he said on Wednesday.
In this respect, Suhaimi said the police had prepared a report to record any individual going in and out of the area under police escort.
He also advised the fire victims to lodge police reports for smooth investigation into the case.
On early morning Tuesday, a row of 53-year-old wooden shophouses was destroyed in a 5.10am fire incident involving three sundry shops, a jewellery shop, a tailor shop, two book stores, a restaurant and two shops selling mobile phones that were built in 1955.
A luxury car belonging to one of the traders parked near the premises was also gutted in the fire. Some 30 people residing in the units managed to flee when the fire started in a jewellery shop.
