KOTA KINABALU: Twenty-two students at a religious school escaped unhurt when a fire broke out at the Al Fattah Madrasah building in Sandakan.

The children managed to flee the building block in time before the fire spread and completely destroyed the madrasah at Kampung Sungai Tiram Batu 19 in Sandakan at 1.15am on Sunday (Dec 24).

Sabah Fire and Rescue Services Department spokesman said that they received a distress call at 1.33am and deployed three fire trucks and 15 firemen to the scene.

Most of the wooden structure of the building block was already destroyed before firemen brought it under control by 3.34am and ended their operations at 4.19am, the spokesman said in a statement.

The spokesman said there were no casualties in the incident.

"The cause of the fire is still under investigation," he said.

According to Sandakan Fire Station chief Severinus Sainkui, firemen initially received a call about a fire involving an electricity fault but about 10 minutes later, they were informed that the fire was at the madrasah building involving an area where student activities were carried out.