2 teen sisters die after being trapped during house fire in JB

Teen sisters die after being trapped inside home during fire

On Monday (1 June), two teen sisters were trapped inside their two-storey terraced house in Johor Bahru during a fire.

As the windows were covered, Huang Yujie, 15, and Huang Yuning, 13 (both transliterated from Chinese), were unable to escape.

According to China Press, the incident occurred at around 8pm, and the sisters fell into a coma as firefighters rushed them to Sultan Ismail Hospital.

They were later confirmed dead at the hospital.

Teens found unconscious on second floor of home

The Johor Fire and Rescue Department said they received a report from the public regarding the fire at 9.06 pm.

Upon arriving at the scene, firefighters found that 60% of the home had been destroyed by the blaze.

They launched firefighting and rescue operations, eventually finding both teens lying unconscious on the second floor.

“After CPR was performed on them by on-site medical staff, they were sent to Sultan Ismail Hospital in Johor Bahru for emergency treatment,” said Operations Commander Rafiq.

Unfortunately, both girls were pronounced dead at the hospital.

Teens’ parents were not at home during incident

It is understood that their parents were not at home at the time of the incident, China Press reported.

By the time they found out about the incident, the fire was already out of control.

One of the family’s neighbours told the Chinese Daily that the fire had spread quickly, and the community’s attempts to put it out were futile.

They believe that the fire began downstairs, before adding that firefighters were struggling to reach the upper floor due to the intense blaze.

Teens were trapped due to iron grilles on windows

Meanwhile, another neighbour from the house behind claimed to have heard a child shouting for help.

They believed that the sisters were to escape due to the iron bars installed on the windows and that they suffocated from inhaling too much smoke.

A relative of the deceased revealed that they were found close to each other in the same room, one in the toilet and the other in bed.

“The fire is believed to have started in the downstairs living room [before] it spread. The upstairs area was not burned, but thick smoke rose upstairs,” she added.

The sisters’ bodies are undergoing autopsies, and authorities are investigating the cause of the fire.

Also read: 32-year-old woman with partial paralysis dies after being trapped alone in M’sia terrace house fire

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Featured image adapted from Guangming, Oriental Daily.