Liew (fourth left) presenting financial assistance to one of the fire victims yesterday.
SANDAKAN: A fire station in Batu Sapi constituency is on the cards following a series of fire incidents in the area.
Disclosing this here yesterday, Batu Sapi MP Datuk Liew Vui Keong said he was planning to set up a fire station in his constituency.
“Since May last year until now, there were seven fire incidents involving villages in Batu Sapi. Currently, we have identified a place to set up a fire station,” he said.
Liew said most probably it would be located at a shop with a high ceiling in order to fit in the fire engines; this could be done considering that the housing ministry had agreed (to the plan).
“Hopefully, we will have a new fire station here in Batu Sapi next year,” he said.
Liew also said fire spreads fast in houses here because the wooden houses were built too close to one another.
The firemen also have difficulty in controlling the fire as it is hard for the fire trucks to get through the narrow roads, he added.
Liew, who is also the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law), said he found that most fire incidents were caused by the carelessness of the villagers.
“I hope that the villagers would take responsibility in keeping safe, and would not allow children or disabled senior citizens to handle cooking in the kitchen,” he added.
Liew said he also plans to set up a fire house in Batu Sapi to store related supplies needed in times of a fire incident.
“We will train the village heads to use these tools to put out a fire, as most of the time, we find that people do not know what to do in times of fire.
“They do not know where the fire hydrant is, and they do not know what tools are needed to help control the fire,” Liew said this when presenting financial assistance to fire victims of Kampung Karamunting and Kampung Cenderamata here, yesterday.
The programme was jointly organised by the National Disaster Management Agency (NADMA), Malaysia Civil Defence Force (APM) and Sabah Social Welfare Department (JPKA), in collaboration with the Sandakan Municipal Council (SMC).
A total of 53 families have benefited from the assistance.
Meanwhile, Liew said that Kampung Gas here is on its way to get recognised as an official village, making it the eighth village to achieve the official status out of a total of 18 villages in Batu Sapi.
“Currently, SMC is looking into the condition of the village before it could get the official village status. They will be looking at distances between the houses here, in which the houses should be about 20 feet away from one another.
“As for the other villages that have yet to achieve the official village status, these villages are built on private land, owned by people who either could not be contacted or people who do not care. So we could not do anything.
“However, I encourage for the related landowners to meet with me to have a discussion so that we could find a solution to this problem,” he said.