A MENTALLY disabled woman died in a fire that gutted her house in Kampung Alma, Bukit Mertajam today.

Penang Fire and Rescue Department operations officer Mohd Fazlee Mohamad said firemen found Nuraida Hashim, 43, unconscious on a bed and was pronounced dead by medical personnel at the scene.

He said a fire engine from the Bukit Mertajam station reached the location 12 minutes after receiving an emergency call at 5.08pm.

“When firemen arrived, the single-storey brick house was already engulfed in flames. We were told a woman was trapped inside,” he said in a statement tonight.

“Firemen managed to retrieve the woman from a bed in a room but an examination by the medical team showed that she had died.”

Fazlee said firefighters put out the blaze at 6.26pm.

The cause of the fire is being investigated. – Bernama, April 11, 2023.