Four children perish in fire 'Papa, papa, help me...'
17/08/2006 NST By Tan Choe Choe

MALACCA: Lim Kok Seng could only scream in anguish yesterday on hearing the pitiful cries of his three children and their young aunt trapped in their burning house at Kampung Bandar Hilir.

In minutes, the cries died out and the 39-year-old mosaic layer and his wife, Lio Choon Yin, 24, feared the worst.

When firemen put out the fire shortly after 2am, they rushed in, hoping against hope, to find them alive.

But this was not to be as their worst fears had come true: Lai Chen, 6, Ju Guan, 7, Ju Seng, 9, and Lio Choon Yee, 13, were dead.

Lai Chen was sprawled in a bedroom at the front while Ju Guan, Ju Seng and Choon Yee were in a bedroom at the back.

They are believed to have suffocated to death before flames razed the single-storey house.

But two others — Tan Poo Hua, 23, and Rachel Chan Mun Yee, 9 — were spared a similar fate on finding the front door seconds after neighbours broke it down.

"I can still hear their cries, especially that of Lai Chen shouting 'papa, papa ... help me ...

"They were calling out to me over and over again and there was nothing that I could do to help," said Kok Seng, who was inconsolable.

"Their cries will haunt me forever."

Kok Seng and Choon Yin could not accept the fact that their three children had died in such tragic circumstances.

"I don’t know how we are going to accept that we will never see them again," he said.

Tan, who was devastated that he could not save the others, had been sleeping in the same room as four of the children when he was awakened by smoke at 1.40am.

He alerted the children but flames prevented him from getting to the front room where Lai Chen was sleeping.

As the smoke thickened, he carried Rachel in his arms and led the other children to the back door but found it locked.

Tan, a family friend, and the children then re-entered their bedroom and cried out for help.

When neighbours replied that the front door had been forced open, he led the children to the front door but lost sight of them after a while.

"It was pure luck that I managed to find the door with Rachel in my arms," said an emotional Tan.

Choon Yee’s mother, Joanna Lee Ah Lan, 51, was unable to speak when met by reporters at the Malacca Hospital.

The fire is believed to have been caused by a short-circuit.

Kok Seng had earlier gone to a 24-hour eatery with his youngest child Lai Yin, 4, to fetch his wife who was working there.

But word soon arrived that his house was on fire and the couple rushed back only to find the semi-concrete structure engulfed in flames.

Melaka Tengah district deputy police chief Superintendent Nik Nazli Husin, who was at the scene, said a small explosion was heard during the fire.

Chief Minister Datuk Seri Mohd Ali Rustam visited the grieving family at the Malacca Hospital.

He immediately approved RM10,000 in aid from State coffers besides a RM1,000 personal donation.

Mohd Ali also directed state officials to provide the Lim family with temporary accommodation at a low-cost house in Peringgit besides promising RM13,000 later for a new low-cost house.

He told reporters that he would be asking Tenaga Nasional Berhad to check wiring in all old houses as the house beside the Lim’s home had been razed in a fire last week.

Mohd Ali said Kok Seng had engaged a contractor to re-wire his house after the incident.

"I want to know how a short- circuit could happen after the re-wiring," he said.