KINABATANGAN: Her house may be on fire, but that didn’t stop a woman from Kampung Kembara Jaya here from completing the process of casting her vote.
Kamsiah Karim, 48, was lining up to cast her vote at the polling centre in the Libaran constituency when she received a phone call from her neighbour.
She was told that her house was currently engulfed in flames.
Instead of panicking, Kamsiah remained in the queue and waited for her turn to cast her vote before returning to her village in Kinabatangan.
Asked on why she didn’t immediately head back home, Kamsiah said she was determined to exercise her right to vote.
“I have a big responsibility so I decided not to leave the queue,” she shrugged.
Upon reaching home, she found that her house was completely burnt down, save for the toilet area. Fortunately, no one was at home as her family was at another house in Kampung Sungai Kayu in Sandakan.
Meanwhile, Kinabatangan Fire and Rescue Department chief Nur Azlan Shah Jamalludin said the department was alerted to the fire at 12.54pm and deployed six firefighters to the scene.
He said the firefighters took about an hour to put out the blaze. The cause of the fire and total losses are still being investigated.