Kota Kinabalu: Calling Daily Express from Australia, a distraught Lynette Silver called the fire “a disaster” which burnt St Michael’s Church hostel to the ground late last Sunday.

“That’s where our Sandakan Memorial Scholarship girls lived,” said Lynette, author of “Sandakan – A Conspiracy of Silence.”      

“Only one girl was inside at the time who fortunately escaped but nothing was saved. It’s a total destruction,” she said.

“The building was the church’s old rectory, wooden and tinder dry. Our girls have only clothes they are wearing – already very poor, they now have nothing,” said a sad Lynette.