Thursday February 7, 2013

Bomba all geared up for floods, fires during CNY holidays

Moving on up: Hisham (left) changing the pips on the shoulder of an officer who has been promoted in rank during the department's annual parade at the Tabuan Jaya fire station in Kuching yesterday.

KUCHING: The state Fire and Rescue Depart-ment (Bomba) is keeping a close eye on the weather during the Chinese New Year celebration.

Its state director Nor Hisham Mohammad said floods were one of two issues that they would focus on throughout the state during the festive season. The other, he said, was to maintain a high level of readiness in case of fire in residential areas.

He said it was in view of these two issues that their rapid intervention motorcycles here and in Sibu would be patrolling the main streets.

“I have instructed all our stations to be ready for these two possibilities. If the rain gets worse, we may even need to freeze all leave,” he told reporters after his department’s annual parade at the Tabuan Jaya fire station yesterday.

Hisham revealed that at about 8pm on Tuesday night, his men evacuated 68 residents of Rumah Steward Melintang in Roban after the village was flooded.

“If the situation improves in the next one or two days, the villagers can return to their homes.”

A look at the Meteorological Department’s website (www.met.gov.my) seven-day weather forecast showed that there could be afternoon thunderstorms everyday until next Tuesday, which is also the third day of the new lunar calendar. Also, from tomorrow until next Friday, the king tide is expected, reaching a high of 6.2m at about 6pm on Monday.

Meanwhile, Hisham said his chapter was among those selected this year to implement the department’s National Blue Ocean Strategy programme.

“Under the programme, we will help to rebuild houses destroyed by fire and we have picked a house in Kampung Jeriah Ramli, Sibu,” he said.

Funded by the private sector and Tabung Baitulmal Sarawak, the project started on Jan 25 and was expected to be completed at the end of this month.

“Last time, we would douse the fire and leave but now we will see what we can do to help. However, our main limitation at the moment is funds and we do not have a specific budget for it.

“Nevertheless, if we have requests for help we will forward them to our headquarters,” Hisham said.

During the parade earlier, the state director presented awards to Bintulu station for having the most cases of fire last year while the most outstanding volunteer firefighter corps were those of Tabuan Jaya.

News

Thursday February 7, 2013

Bomba all geared up for floods, fires during CNY holidays