KUCHING: The Fire and Rescue Department (Bomba) has recorded a total of 121 fire cases involving longhouses throughout Sarawak, from 2015 to 2020.
Sarawak Bomba director Khirudin Drahman revealed on Friday (Aug 21) that Sibu recorded the most, with 39 cases, including the recent one in Julau, leaving 142 homeless.
Up next was Sri Aman with 26, followed by Bintulu (23), Miri (22), Limbang (six), and Kota Samarahan (five). So far, Kuching had none.
“As for the causes, 45 per cent involved electrical, 24 per cent; gas equipment, 15 per cent; embers, seven per cent; lighters or matches, four per cent; kerosene lamp, two per cent; candles and three per cent; others.
“Throughout this period (2015 to 2020), three casualties and eight injuries were due to fire.
“The period when a longhouse fire occurs is mostly between 6am and 12pm (37 per cent) whereby, those who are at home during this period are the elderly and children as the adults are at work,” he told the press at the Bomba headquarters, Jalan Setia Raja here.
Losses amounting to RM95,696,622 (58 per cent) had been recorded while the total value of property saved was RM67,887,395 (42 per cent).
The total number of bilik (units) destroyed was 1,554 (59.1 per cent) while the bilik saved was 1,074 doors (40.9 per cent).
“Recently, Bomba collaborated with the Sarawak Social Development Council to produce a house fire safety guideline video, distributed to the community.
“Based on our analysis, a lot of the fire cases could be averted through three steps – Prevention, Surveillance and Protection (3Ps – Pencegahan, Pengawasan dan Perlindungan),” explained Khirudin.
He noted that Bomba had conducted researches on fire coverage, to ensure that the response time of the fire stations would be achieved.
Bomba currently has 34 stations throughout the state – one Category A+ station, five Category A stations, six Category B stations, 16 Category C stations, and six Category D stations. Four fire stations would be completed soon – Sibujaya, Sungai Asap, Sungai Plan and Lutong.
For Category E stations, Khirudin said there was none at the moment but in the 12th Malaysia Plan, Bomba had proposed for 10 to built at a cost of RM500,000 per station.
“The department is also proposing for 24 more Category D stations, in which 10 of them, we have to ask for land, nine already have land for construction, while five more are being suggested.
“For good coverage, Bomba requires 50 stations to ensure that the response time will be less than 15 minutes and the amount of losses can be reduced,” he added.
So far, there are 847 Bomba communities in seven zones, with 8,347 members, 47 auxiliary firefighter teams, 54 Company Emergency Response Teams with 9,707 members
