A big fire went through Kampung Bahagia, a water village in Sandakan, Sabah on Sunday morning. This fire left thousands of people without homes. The fire started before sunrise on April 19 2026. It spread very quickly. Whole rows of houses on stilts were burned down in just a few hours.
The firefighters got a call for help at 1:32 in the morning. They came from Sandakan and Kinabatangan. They had a lot of problems. The village has walkways and when the tide was low there was not enough water. The strong wind made the fire spread faster from one house to another.
Kampung Bahagia is an old water village in Sabah. The village has wooden houses built over the sea one next to the other. These villages are very rich in culture and history. They can catch fire easily. When a fire starts it can burn down houses. At first people thought that 200 houses were burned down.. As the day went on they saw that the number was much higher. By the afternoon they thought that 1,000 homes were destroyed.
The fire affected the fire affected people. At first the number of people who were sleeping in shelters was 445 people.
The fire affected people were in a situation. Soon the number of the fire affected people in the shelters went up, to 8,000 people. These were families of the fire affected people who had lost everything they had. Some of the fire affected people said they had to run out of their houses in the middle of the night grabbing whatever clothes they were already wearing.
The fire was moving fast so the fire affected people did not have any time to collect their belongings.
The village of the fire affected people was a mess. Families of the fire affected people were scrambling to get from the fire some of the fire affected people were piling onto boats others of the fire affected people were hurrying across narrow planks in the dark they were just trying to find a safe place.
Now the people in charge of the evacuation centers in places like Batu Sapi are trying to help. They are getting lots of support from volunteers, defense officials and local officials. They are bringing food, water and blankets to the people who need them.
The work is not done yet. They are still bringing in relief supplies from the district and national levels. More and more people are coming to help every hour. The volunteers and officials are working hard to help the people, in Batu Sapi. The evacuation centers are getting supplies every hour. The firefighters had a difficult time. The village is built in a way that makes it hard for fire engines to get close. When the tide was low the sea was away and it was hard to get water. So the firefighters had to use tanker trucks and find hydrants in areas.
With all these problems the firefighters and other teams kept working. The police, defense and utility workers all helped. It was an effort and so far thankfully no one has been killed. The search teams are still looking through the debris to make sure.
This fire was declared an emergency very quickly. The authorities in Sabah set up evacuation centers. Started bringing in emergency supplies right away.The government in Kuala Lumpur said it is working closely with authorities and promised to give housing and essential aid.
The main focus now is, on the thousands of people who lost their homes. They need to be safe and have food, water and a place to live. The government wants to help these people.
The authorities have also started checking which houses are still standing and if any need to be torn down for safety reasons. The situation is very complicated. No one knows how long it will take to recover.
As for what caused the fire no one knows yet. The investigators are looking at everything, including problems and accidents.. The officials are saying that the wooden houses, the crowded village, the wind and the tide all contributed to the fire spreading out of control.
This disaster is a reminder of how vulnerable these coastal water villagesre. People have been warning for years that these communities are at risk of tragedy because of the wooden houses the poor escape routes and the difficulty for firefighters to access the area.
The experts have been calling for improvements, including firebreaks, safer electricity and better evacuation routes. This fire, which is the one in Sabah in many years is forcing people to talk about these issues again.
The relief efforts are still going on. The officials will keep updating the numbers as they get more information. Every statistic carries a story. There’s a family behind each number, scrambling to find a way forward, and there’s a community—whole neighborhoods—wondering how to pick up the pieces and keep this from happening again. Right now, Kampung Bahagia and folks all over Sabah are facing something really tough. They need help to get back on their feet. People in Kampung Bahagia are still reeling from what happened. They need support—not just to rebuild houses, but to restore their lives and the heart of their community.
