SIBU: The public has been advised not to venture into the burnt-out shophouses in Jalan Khoo Peng Loong for safety reasons.
A total of 10 of the 13 shophouse units were destroyed in the Jul 21 fire, the cause of which is still under investigation by the authorities.
Firefighters took up to five hours to bring the fire under control.
“There was still smoke on Monday (Jul 27). Yesterday, we erected a guardrail to close one of the lanes to the public. It is SMC’s duty to protect the public.
“We hope the public will not go to the area or enter the shophouse units. This is for safety reasons,” said Sibu Municipal Council chairman Clarence Ting in his keynote address at the council’s monthly meeting today.
Ting said the council would hold a dialogue session with the property owners soon to find out their plans.
“We want to have a dialogue with the shophouse owners. We want to know their plans as these are private properties. They may need to demolish the buildings,” he added.
Separately, Ting announced that SMC had recently won two awards from the Ministry of Public Health, Housing and Local Government.
The awards were for Collection of Assessment Tax Arrears 2025 and Assessment Tax Collection 2025.
“Our assessment tax collection was more than 94 per cent, which qualified us for the awards. We hope we can win the same awards in the coming years as we have been working very hard to collect assessment rates,” he said.
Meanwhile, Ting urged members of the public who have been bitten by stray dogs to immediately report the incidents to the council.
He said this would allow the council to remove stray dogs from public areas and help prevent an increase in the number of reported rabies cases.
