Brunei Fire Survivor from Olongapo Recounts Her Ordeal

Hailing from Olongapo in Central Luzon Island in the Philippines, Juvy recounted her ordeal to The Brunei Times

Bandar Seri Begawan - Juvy Vilarosa Umiten, 43, who survived the Belait district fire which claimed lives of seven foreign workers - five Filipinos, spoke for the first time of her ordeal.

She broke her back when she jumped from the second floor of the burning house on Jalan Bunga Raya on Friday morning and had to undergo a major operation at Ripas Hospital.

Reports gathered from the authorities and eyewitnesses are inconclusive and the cause of the fire is yet to be established pending ongoing investigations.

Hailing from Olongapo in Central Luzon Island in the Philippines, Juvy recounted her ordeal to The Brunei Times in the company of her husband, Henry Umiten, who rushed to her bedside from his workplace in Labuan.

Visibly shaky and in pain, Juvy said that her initial reaction to the incident was fear and confusion because of the shock that rudely awakened her from her sleep.

"Actually I didn't realise what was going on (upon waking up) because all I heard during the first few moments were the yelling and screaming for people to contact the Fire and Rescue Department... when I looked outside my door it was dark and filled with smoke," she said. That was when she realised a fire had broken out in the house.

She rushed out of her room and saw a group of her friends making their way to the nearest exit that led to the first floor, and remembered that she had left her mobile phone behind. She rushed back in, thinking about her husband who would be calling her at seven in the morning.

"Every morning my husband calls me at seven to wake me up for work, she said, smiling at her husband who was at her hospital bedside.

When she went back out, she could no longer see any of her friends. Those friends were the seven people that were killed, she said.

"Maybe the floor had collapsed underneath their feet (as the result of the fire from downstairs)," she said.

"If I (had not) bothered with the handphone I would have been among the seven of those that lost their lives. Actually, when I got back into the hallway I couldn't see a thing because it was too dark and filled with smoke. I started shouting `I cannot breathe, I cannot breathe' but I wasn't crying," she said.

"Luckily a man from -the - room next to me heard me and called out to me saying Ateh dito ateh' (sister, here, sister)," she said.

"It was too dark to see because of the smoke but after groping around for several minutes I felt the man's arm pulling me into his room," said Juvy.

She said the man tried to get them both to safety but was blocked by the fire that was rapidly spreading through the top floor.

Going back into the man's room, said Juvy, he immediately started breaking down the windows and climbed out onto the roof. From there he tried to pull her out as well, added Juvy, but due to her large frame and the hot roof where he was standing on, he was unable to do so.

He had no choice but to leave her there. "It's good that I have a little bit of strength left and I pulled all my energy together just enough to get out from the window and onto the roof (before jumping to the ground)," she said through a nervous laugh.-- Courtesy of The Brunei Times - By Syed Rory Malai Hassan