An average of three homes are gutted nationwide daily.
Fire and Rescue Department deputy director general Datuk Amer Yusof said up to July this year, 1,102 houses were destroyed by fire.
He said most of them were terrace houses with 556 cases, flats (231), apartments (119), longhouses (100) and squatter homes (96).
Investigations, he said, showed many of the fires were caused by faulty electrical wiring, and gas and oil stoves.
Amer was speaking to reporters at the handingover ceremony of a house, which was rebuilt by the department, to the family of an oddjob labourer here yesterday.
Urban Wellbeing, Housing and Local Government Deputy Minister Datuk Halimah Mohamed Sadique, who presented the keys to the family, said the department spent about RM1.2mil annually to rebuild homes for poor people which were destroyed in fires nationwide.
“Each home is built with an allocation of RM40,000 and manpower comes from the Fire Department.
“It takes about one to two months to build the homes,” she said, adding that the programme started in 2012.
Source – The Star (24 August 2015)
