KUCHING: The federal Ministry of Housing and Local Government should review its one-size-fits-all practice used in building Fire and Rescue Department (Bomba) stations.
“They should give special consideration to Sarawak in view of its vast and unique geophysical environment,” said Local Government and Housing Assistant Minister Datuk Dr Penguang Manggil.
He said this when replying to a question from Martin Ben (GPS-Kedup) during the State Legislative Assembly yesterday.
According to Penguang, the federal Housing and Local Government Minister had previously proposed the construction of a special category of Bomba station ― Category E ― specifically to cater for rural Sarawak.
“However, as of today, nothing has been initiated,” he lamented.
He revealed that Bomba Sarawak aims to resubmit a proposal for Tebedu Bomba station in the 12th Malaysia Plan, as the earlier proposal submitted under the 11th Malaysia Plan had not been approved.
The Marudi assemblyman pointed out that the Sarawak government had approved a piece of land in Tebedu to build a Category D Bomba station as early as 2009.
“The cost to build a Category D Bomba station, which includes an administrative block, engine bay, workshop, hose tower and marching field, is estimated to be around RM3.5 million,” he stated.
He said a Category D station would demand about ten full-time fire-fighting officers, 15 voluntary ones, two units of utility vehicles and one rescue boat.
Besides Tebedu, he said that the state government via Bomba Sarawak has proposed to build a number of Bomba stations in rural towns, having acknowledged the gravity of longhouse fires problem.
“There were 26 cases of longhouse fires in 2017, 24 cases in 2018 and five cases from January to April this year,” he added.
