Longhouse Fire – what can we do about it?
Posted by Charcoal Art
When do we Dayaks can put an end to this once and for all? The loss of properties due to fire for ages, doesn’t help in geeting rid of poverty. Dayaks have to change their longhouse design to incorporate the fire prevention criteria i.e. if one house is on fire, the rest will not be affected.
I hope Dayakbaru are convinced soonest possible and eventually could champion this matter.
Dayakbaru Comment:
SDNU is in the process of identifying the “process” and “support” needed to be given to longhouses to help them understanding FIRE PREVENTION concept.
Acknowledgement is given to ruaikitai.com who has tirelessly through cooperation with Shell to promote Fire Safety awareness in many log houses.
Other Dayak association should join hand in this effort.
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Tuesday, September 1st, 2009
Longhouse fire leaves 33 families homeless
By Raymond Tan
BINTULU: Merdeka celebration turned bleak for 33 families as they were made homeless by a fire that razed their longhouse at Km 36 Jalan Bintulu-Tatau on Sunday.
RED HOT: Rumah Joshua Manik Buyu is all ablaze on the eve of the National Day, leaving 33 families homeless.
The fire broke out at 10.50pm when most of the residents had retired to bed.
The chief, Tuai Rumah Josua Manik Buyu, said he spotted the fire when he saw bright light glowing in the kitchen of the second-door unit.
“I alerted the residents and then all that we could do was run. The fire was spreading too fast. We could not salvage most of our belongings.”
The loss was estimated at RM1 million.
Worse still, the fire also burnt some building materials that the residents had been using to construct a new longhouse nearby to replace their 21-year-old longhouse.
Josua said the fire left the longhouse folk with almost nothing.
“All our valuables, money, documents and household items have been burnt.”
He said at the time the fire broke out, 19 families were living in the longhouse.
“The rest are working in town and their family members have gone with them. They only return during festivals like Gawai Dayak and Christmas.”
He said although he had seen the beginning of the fire glowing in the kitchen of the unoccupied second-door unit, its actual cause was still unknown.
“The family in the unit has moved to Kidurong. They only stay during the day and go back before nightfall.”
The fire had completely razed Rumah Joshua by the time the Bintulu firemen arrived. It took them 45 minutes to reach the longhouse.
The firemen pumped water from a pond to put out the fire.
No casualties were reported
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Inspirational word from gkm2020
Suggested that all longhouses are now to be equipped with mini BOMBA, say, by allocated one water tank at least the capacity of 5000 Liters. Does not matter what sort of water is it. It can be rain, pond or swamp water. At least a serviceable waterpump can push upto 3 bargs and appoperiate length of standard water hose fitted with nozzles. These equipments shall be kept properly and Tuai Rumah or JKKK shall appointed a designated coustodian for these equipments. To allow a proper use of these firefighting equipments a group/team from the longhouse shall be sent for training at BOMBA on a proper way to operate the machine in any case fire is happen. Asked from a relevant parties such as Local Authority and YB of the politicals parties or even to our State Government. By having these sort of equipments at least we could do something or doing our own firefighting before BOMBA is coming to assist, as it took time for BOMBA to reach. Usually what I saw most longhouses now are having Fire extinguishers but these are only mean for small fire, that is why the term in Bahasa Malaysia is (Alat Pemadam Api Kecil). I believed the cost is not that much and our Government afford to give if there are request by submitting the proposal and paper work to the relevabt Government Department and get support from the YB does not matter from which Political Parties they are from.
I am an architect by proffession. I had given my recommendations deliberately on this issue at one of the column in this blog but it seem nobody cares. Well so be it…….
I am an architect by profession. I had deliberately recommended quite a number of suggestions in one of the column in this blog concerning the same issue few months ago but nobody seem to pay attention. So be it then….
I am an architect by profession. I had deliberately recommended quite a number of suggestions in one of the column in this blog concerning the same issue few months ago but nobody seem to pay attention.
jinggaukelingkang, what a pity. Your posting nearly make us cry. But that is how it is worked here.
You have to post,repost,repost, again and again until they get the messages. You have to get used and know the culture of DB and become one of them follow they norm.
There are in fact many good people in this DB, only you have to follow their tune and their dance. We were once just like you.
Take for example, topic NCR land’s issues how many times it has been posted, said,mention until we ourselves also could’nt remember.
Please, jinggauKelingkang dengan izin “anang jera munyi ko iban” send some more rational posting for us in DB to share.
Thank you,
We, mrm
jinggauKelingkang on September 2nd, 2009 11:12 pm
It is good to have architect such as yourself to discuss this subject. Much appreciated if you repost you idea in this thread.
While on face value I called for a change in the longhouse design to prevent complete burning of longhouse (in the event of fire) I am fully aware that this directly breaks tradition which has been practiced for centuries. However, God gives us brains to think and besides this is the 21st century. Everyone know that Dayaks is lagging behind – could it be due to our own in ability to change with times? Abdul Hadi Awang said Dayaks still wear loinclothes until today – in our mentality it is true.
By just incorporating fire safety measure ins’t enough. Fire is fire, when it breaks on highly flammable wooden structure, it’s only a matter of minutes to see the whole thing burn. Thus change in design is necessary. Changing a longhouse is a serious thing, we cannot do it alone. It is gratifying that SDNU is paying value interest in the matter.
In my 20 over years dealing with safety issues including as fire, I have come across not less than 10 cases of longhouse fires. In my study in 1991, an average of 5 longhouses burnt every year from 1980-1991 (based on Bomba & Pejabat Daerah statistics). I presented a paper in a Seminar with Majlis Adat Istiadat & Suruhanjaya Perumahan sometimes in late 80s and made the following recommendations:
1. Every 300 feet, there must be “Fire Break” of atleast 12 feet – to minimise loss incase of fire. This was violently objected by Majlis Adat (the late Grunsin Lembat) as it “Mumpong Perabong” in Iban traditional belief and make the longhouse “angat”.
2. Fire extinguishers is a must for every 4-5 door (1 unit 6-9 KG Dry Chemical ABC Type).
3. Fire Fighting Training is also a MUST on how to operate the fire extinguishers.
4. In my dissertation I proposed a “Rain Harvesting” based sprinkler system be installed in longhouses. My cost estimate then was approx RM20-25K to instal fro an average 10-20 door longhouse. In US, such system has prevented atleast 1000 homes from fire loss every year (based on NFPA statistics 1991).
Safety of longhouses from fire unfortunately depended on ‘prevention’ rather that ‘cure’ due to the nature of materials of construction (mostly timber based), fire loading, design (the ruai & sadau are most condusive for fire spread)
Even having a dedicated bomba Station in every longhouse doesnt helps as the fire spread too rapidly. I am happy to assist if DB want to embark on a pilot project mentioned above – rain harvesting sprinkler system in longhouses.
Iban Baru,
Thank you for the backgrounds and I won’t be too wrong to say that your goodself is a person having abundance knowledge and experiences on the matter. Thus your involvement in pursuing the ultimate changes to the longhouse designs would certainly carry heavy weight and credibility.
With regards to the “mumpong perabong”, in our traditional belief, it is something that is difficult to deal with. The cares and precautions to ensure longhouse “enda angat” remain an important criteria and a superstition which no many dare to challenge. With that said it should still be a subject and consideration for further elaboration and shouldn’t be killed on the spot. Iban adat istiadat should continue to debate about this.
hye everyone….sorry for the laps…hopefully there are people still logging to this issue. Have anybody wondered why if there is any fire occuring at terrace house, it only involves 1 or 2 units only. whereby if a fire occurs at longhouse, the whole longhouse will be burnt. Party Wall is the key feature…..think about it.