Sunday May 12, 2013

Let the professionals handle it

By VANES DEVINDRAN
vanes@thestar.com.my

Helping out: Bomba personnel from the Kuching Zone taking part in the gotong-royong at Kampung Santubong.

SANTUBONG: The Fire and Rescue Department here will not customise its training module for its volunteer firefighters to suit their locations and other geographical considerations any time soon.

This is because the safety of the volunteers is a top priority, and so the main rescue duties must still be borne by the professionals.

Kuching fire chief Tiong Ling Hii said more and more people were willing to become volunteer firefighters, and villages that were more than 20km from the nearest fire station were encouraged to have their own teams of volunteers.

“They can be the first responders. However, there is a limit to what they can do. We need to think of their safety,” he told reporters during a gotong-royong with people of Kampung Santubong here yesterday.

He was responding to the possibility of formulating training modules that suit the geographical locations of volunteer firefighters.

For instance, Kampung Santubong is close to the sea so a module which encompasses safety at sea would be suitable for the volunteers here.

Tiong said he understood that this approach would prove useful, but then again, there were many factors to consider.

He said there were just some things which volunteers could not do on their own and the expertise of the professionals would be needed.

“As such, volunteers are trained on the basics only, such as the correct method to extinguishing a fire, and tackling fire hazards,” he said.

He said volunteer teams would be equipped with fire extinguishers and, in some cases, even vehicles such as a four-wheel drive, hoses and water pumps.

He said volunteers played a crucial part in firefighting and rescue efforts as most village houses were made of wood, and caught fire easily.

As such, he said, the department depended on volunteers to act as the first responders before the professional firefighters arrived.

News

Sunday May 12, 2013

Let the professionals handle it

By VANES DEVINDRAN vanes@thestar.com.my

By VANES DEVINDRAN
vanes@thestar.com.my