KUCHING: A total of 20 longhouses were destroyed in fire incidents from January until July this year, said State Fire and Rescue Department (Bomba) Director Nor Hisham Mohammad.
Nor Hisham said 40 per cent of the fire cases at longhouses were due to cooking or human error.
“This is different compared to the usual building fire cases whereas 62 per cent of the cases were due to power overload and 30 per cent were due to cooking or human error,” he said after officiating at the Bomba monthly assembly at Tabuan Jaya fire station here, yesterday.
Nor Hisham advised the public, especially longhouse folk, to take extra precautions against fire and equip their houses or longhouses with fire extinguishers.
Meanwhile Nor Hisham urged the public to assist the department in fighting vandalism as 4,399 fire hydrants in the state had been vandalised.
“A total of 3,257 fire hydrants were found missing and 1,142 of them were damaged. To date we have replaced 1,000 missing hydrants,” he said.
Earlier on, Nor Hisham witnessed the handing-over-of-duties ceremony between State Bomba Deputy Director, Mohd Ali Bahudin and Assistant Director (Operations and Rescue) Tiong Hing Hii.
