Senior officers in a photocall after the annual assembly.
KUCHING: Fire and Rescue Department (Bomba) has preliminarily stationed four fire posts in the city’s outskirts namely in Samajaya, Batu Kawa, Kota Sentosa and Taman Malihah (Matang).
According to its director-general Datuk Wira Wan Mohd Nor Ibrahim, the fire posts, which were set up in Jan 15, would be stationed during peak hours from 4.30pm to 6.30pm.
“In Sarawak, for a start, the department is placing four fire posts first,” Wan Mohd Nor said in his speech during an annual assembly at their headquarters here yesterday. His text of speech was read by its state director Nor Hisham Mohammad .
He said the new concept of stationing fire posts, which was first introduced in Peninsular Malaysia middle of last year, would include stationing fire engines and crews at strategic locations in big congested cities.
“This will enable the personnel to act faster in the designated areas.”
In Peninsular Malaysia, he said so far, eight fire posts had been set up – three each in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor and one each at Bandar Hilir Melaka and Putrajaya.
“God willing, more fire posts will be established in a short period especially in all big cities throughout the country.”
The initiative to station fire posts at strategic locations in congested big cities is part
of the key performance indicators of the department in order to reduce the average response time. The second KPI is to increase the percentage of attending to emergency calls in less than 10 minutes.
After being analysed, Wan Mohd Nor said it was found that throughout last year, the average response time was 14.95 minutes, compared to 15.02 minutes the year before.
Wan Mohd Nor said KPIs showed that as a whole, the response time had improved.
He also said the KPI would be further improved with the addition of 39 more new fire stations now being built throughout the country. Fifteen of them would be completed this year.
“There are 282 fire stations currently available in the country.”
Meanwhile, Nor Hisham said they had set a target to set up ‘Bomba Komuniti’ in 41 state constituencies yet to have one.
“Initially, we wanted to set up 10 groups per state constituency but due to the need to spend prudently, we have decided to reduce it to five this year. We are optimistic that we will be able to achieve an additional 205 groups of ‘Bomba Komuniti’ this year.”
Nor Hisham also said the public education programme implemented by the department in the state was something they were proud of.
During the assembly, Nor Hisham presented stripes to officers who were recently promoted as well as presented certificates of appreciation to those who participated in the Batang Lupar helicopter crash operation and in the search for Andrew Gaskell who went missing in Mulu National Park.
Deputy director Md Ali Bahudin, state Bomba academy commandant Mohd Fauzi Mohd Kifli and fire investigation division assistant director Amran Jusoh were among those present at the function.