Four fishermen’s homes were damaged in the 26 July blaze
Faizal showing me his tiny home a few weeks before the fire
Now even that is gone: What’s left of Faizal’s home after the fire
In early July 2008, I wrote a blog entry ‘Where has all the tsunami money gone?’ highlighting the plight of several fisherfolk in Tanjung Bunga, victims of the 2004 tsunami that hit the shores of Penang. They were forced to relocate to temporary housing – actually, they were more like small cubicles in a longhouse on the beach – as they were unable to obtain lots in affordable flats built on the site of their former fishing village.
Now what little they had has literally gone up in ashes after fuel stored for their motorboats accidentally leaked and caught fire, seriously damaging four longhouse homes belonging to Faizal bin Mhd Yusuff, Ahmad bin Ismail, Ramli bin Din and Ismail on the night of 26 July 2008.
The fisherfolk received prompt assistance of RM300 from the Buddhist Tzu Chi group in Penang. They also received relief assistance of RM1,000 each from the Pejabat Daerah dan Tanah. The Penang Office for Human Development chipped in with close to RM10,000 to help the fisher folk replace their burnt nets so that they could go back to the sea as soon as possible.
Now the fishermen are hoping to rebuild their homes and repair the damage done. For that, they will need to raise a total of RM21,000.
