MUAR: The four young siblings who were killed in a fire at Kampung Sabak Awor here last night are believed to have tried to save themselves by hiding in the toilet at their house.
Muar district police chief Assistant Commissioner Raiz Mukhliz Azman Aziz said the 7.49pm incident claimed the lives of two girls and two boys aged eight to three.
He said during the incident, the children's 31-year-old mother had gone out to a nearby shop to buy food for buka puasa, while their 30-year-old father was working at a restaurant here.
Raiz said the children were trying to escape the blaze by seeking refuge in the toilet. He said neighbours also claimed to have heard screams.
"There were screams. All the victims are believed to have been still conscious when the incident happened. They were trying to get out of the house. Their initial action was to go and seek refuge in the toilet.
"When a rescue team arrived, the back door of the house was completely burnt, and we could not determine if it was locked or not," he told Bernama today.
Raiz said according to the initial statement from the victims' mother, the house was not locked and she and her husband were not at home during the incident.
He said their father, a Myanmar national, was at work while their mother was to buy food for buka puasa at a nearby shop.
"About 10 minutes later, she (the victims' mother) got a call from a neighbour who told her that her house was on fire, so she rushed home. But she couldn't get in because the fire was so intense," he told Bernama.
Raiz said the cause of the fire was likely due to a short circuit, but investigations were still ongoing .
The case was classified under a Sudden Death Report (SDR), he said.
Twenty firemen from the Muar and Bukit Gambir Fire and Rescue stations along with two Fire Rescue Tenders (FRT) and an Emergency Medical Rescue Services (EMRS) vehicle were despatched to the scene to put out the fire at the makeshift house.
Raiz said preliminary investigation indicated that the fire was caused by a short circuit and believed to have started from the kitchen of the house.
"The children's mother said that their house did not have a television or other electrical appliances, but some lights were on. When firefighters arrived, the house was already 60 to 70 per cent destroyed," he added.
The bodies were sent to the Sultanah Fatimah Specialist Hospital for post-mortem.
It was reported last night that four children were killed in a fire which razed a house