The point of origin of the fire in the ceiling.
Staff members and visitors gather outside the federal government building near Jalan Penghulu Nyanggau. The JANM office affected by fire is on the ground-floor.
Bunsu Kassim
KAPIT: The quick action of one of the staff members of Accountant-General’s Department (JANM) branch here saved the ground-floor office of the federal government building from being destroyed by fire.
It is suspected that the incident on Monday afternoon was triggered by sparks caused by faulty wires connected to the air-conditioning units.
Bunsu Kassim, an operations assistant who has been with the branch since 1990, said it was fortunate that the department had never missed conducting its fire drill every year, run in collaboration with the district’s Fire and Rescue Department.
“You could say that we have learned the basic emergency dos and don’ts by heart, because attendance is a must. I guess the rationale behind it is that we would know exactly what to do and not do during times of emergency like this one,” he told The Borneo Post here.
However, Bunsu also disclosed that his years in the Territorial Army (TA) Regimen 511 had taught him a lot about the necessary course of actions to be taken during a fire.
“I just reacted automatically, reaching out for the fire extinguisher and douse the flames at their exact point of origin,” he said, recalling that his watch showed 3.46pm when the incident happened.
Prior to the fire, he said his office experienced power outage three times, with the first occurring at 12.30pm.
“It was after the last one (outage) that we heard a loud crackling pop, coming from one of the air-conditioning units. It was quite disturbing because it continued for a few minutes.
“I then took a stick and tore the particle board off the ceiling. It was then when I saw some of the wires burning.
“Without any second thought, I grabbed the extinguisher, stood on a desk and immediately doused the flames.
“I was with another colleague Collin Kumbong at the time. I’m really relieved that the fire didn’t spread further and damage the entire office,” Bunsu related, adding that firefighters arrived moments later and proceeded to take control of the situation.
One thing that puzzled Bunsu was that there was no smoke during the incident.
“I do know that the flames were very hot because they were green in colour. Except for us JANM staff on the ground-floor, everyone else in the four-storey building was unaware of it — they only realised that there was an emergency when the firefighters arrived,” he said.
Kapit Fire and Rescue officer Irrwandy Tugor, who led the operation here, took note of Bunsu’s report.
“Actually, many of the staff here thought that it was just another routine drill.
“However, it is comforting to see that they managed to apply what they had learned during past exercises.
JANM Kapit has a staff strength of 20.
At the time of the fire, the department was entertaining two officers from the Putrajaya headquarters, coming to conduct auditing on its annual account.
For now, the JANM office on the ground-floor here is closed but its other section of the first-floor is operating as usual.
The incident is still under investigation.