For majority of residents in oil town Seria, Millimewah Department Store is their go-to place for everything — although mostly catering for the budget conscious, they’re the only complete department store in town. While it’s debatable whether Soon Lee or Millimewah had more inventory, Millimewah was the only outlet that had a floor dedicated to selling clothing for kids and adults, men and women. At least they were up until the moment the entire premise was burned to the ground in a matter of hours. Electrical overload is believed to have been the cause of the fire according to Fire and Rescue’s assessment. I happened to be in the vicinity when fire broke out though I wasn’t anywhere near enough to hear what passers-by described as an explosion.
I had a busy afternoon shuttling the kids to and from tuition classes so that explains the near and far photos I shared on Facebook during the drive to and from home several times. The intensity of the billowing smoke seen from the Shell refinery and the field opposite Anthony Abel College (I took those routes to get home) very quickly turned turbulent increasing in volume and density.
Related: Seria landmark fire causes total loss of over $7 million
All images: Samsung Galaxy Note 5.
