KOTA KINABALU: PKR Sabah has called on the relevant authorities to identify the areas prone to an outbreak of fire and thereafter to immediately implement preventive measures.
The secretary, Dr Roland Chia made the call after two fires occured at Kampung Tanjung Aru where about 100 houses were destroyed and at Kampung Ganang in Kepayan where two houses were razed.
Chia who is also a supreme council member of the party, visited the two affected locations and stressed the need for the relevant authorities to undertake proactive preventive measures to avoid further losses of lives and properties.
According to Chia, “the authorities concerned are instead more towards a ‘reactionary’ mode and acted only when something has already occurred.”
He cited the case of the two families at Kampung Ganang whose houses were burnt down by a recent fire where prior to the incident the family members had actually lodged several requests and complaints to the relevant authority to check on the live wires near their houses that had been noticed to give out sparks.
“According to the members of the two families, they have lodged complaints to the authorities on the dangerous live wires connected to the power transmission line outside their houses for almost three months. Occassionally, they had seen sparks from the wires but their complaints had instead fallen on deaf ears,” Chia said.
He said that as a consequent of the omission on the part of the relevant authority concerned, the two families now have to bear and suffer the cost of rebuilding their houses.
“They now reside temporarily at the nearby balairaya for refuge and shelter,” he said.
The villagers also recounted to Chia how the personnel of the Fire and Rescue Department had to depend on water obtained from a nearby drain in their brave effort to control the fire from spreading as there was no fire hydrant installed at Kampung Ganang.