• Towards this end, Tuaran Member of Parliament Datuk Wilfred Bumburing said the process should be speeded up to ensure the operators have a place to ply their trade for the time being.
• "We have asked the District Council to ascertain a site suitable for the business owners," he said.
• He said this in a ceremony where the fire victims received donations at the District Office in Tamparuli, here, on Friday.
• Tamparuli Assemblyman Datuk Jahid Jahim said the livelihood of the shop owners would be disrupted if the setting up of the temporary premises was delayed.
• Also present were Assistant Tamparuli District Officer, Edip Abun, and Kapitan Cina Tamparuli, Soong Ket Siong.
• Meanwhile, Local Government and Housing Minister Datuk Hajiji Noor, who had previously visited the site where an entire row comprising seven units of two-storey wooden shophouses was razed, had urged owners of old buildings to repair their electrical wiring to prevent short-circuits, which could cause fire.
• The wooden shophouses, one of five 50-year-old buildings built just after the war by the colonial administration, were destroyed in a fire at 5.10am.

DAILY EXPRESS NEWS