Gambier/ Gambir Street Burnt Down

Is Bomba at Fault again?

It was around 8:50pm last night when my wife got a phone call from my father in law, saying that shophouse sat Gambir street were on fire. We were shocked as this is the 2nd fire outbreak this year on the same street.

Of course this morning the fire has come to the front page of many online and offline newspapers, not because the deputy chief minister of Sarawak, Dr. George Chan has visited the disaster scene, but due to the historical value and the tie of that place to the people of Kuching! Who doesn’t know where Gambier/ Gambir Street is in Kuching. I believe a lot of our parents or grand parents would go there before the festive seasons like Chinese New Year or Hari Raya to buy some textiles for our new clothing.

The gutted shops were Fabric Accessory House, one of the city’s most established and biggest textile companies, Chaw Chuen Supermarket, ICT Trading Sdn Bhd, which is a one-stop discount store, and Khin Siong Huat, a sundry shop.

Below is the video shot by my friend, John Tan who went across the river purposely to shoot the fire scene.

Isn’t it ironical that we are all fighting hard to preserve the historical buildings and heritage of Sarawak, but we lost the double-storey colonial and White Rajah era shophouses to the fire just over few hours time.

The shophouses, which front the Sarawak River were built about 60 years ago. Opposite them was the former busy Gambier/Gambir Market which was demolished several months ago for the proposed extension of the Kuching Waterfront project.

Very soon after the fire, the government announced that the gutted pre-war shop houses will be renovated or reconstructed into tourism centre to attract tourists. It is true that Gambier/ Gambir Street is part of the Heritage Trail in Kuching and therefore something has to be done to turn the Gambier/ Gambir street and Kuching Waterfront into a hive of activities. However,at the very first place, how come the government was so keen to pull down the historical Gambier Market at the opposite side of the road? The answer is: it is very complicated and we all better keep quite and mind out own business:)

No more Merry Xmas to the owners of the affected shop houses. Hope government will act fast enough to help rebuild the place. Most important, hope that Santa Claus will give the Bomba a brand new Fire Hose as Xmas present this year. No more leaking fire hose Mr. Fire Fighter.