KOTA KINABALU: A fire that razed 11 houses in Kampung Contoh, Petagas on Thursday night (June 16) saw 76 villagers from 17 families made homeless.

       The Dewan Sri Putatan has been activated as a temporary shelter to house six families involving 29 fire victims, which consist of 11 men, eight women and 10 minors (six boys and three girls and a baby girl), as of 8am on Friday (June 17).

       The rest of the victims have opted to stay elsewhere, according to the Putatan district Disaster Management secretariat.

       Earlier, a distress call alerting the fire at 9.50pm on Thursday saw authorities from various agencies making its way to the scene.

       “The Penampang Fire and Rescue has conducted the operation to put out the fire on all the houses involved, with assistance from the Penampang and Kota Kinabalu Civil Defence Force units.

       “The police also assisted in controlling the traffic on location, while the Putatan district office and welfare department collected data of victims to assist and place them at the shelter,” said the secretariat in a statement.