KUCHING: There is still a need for more fire stations in Sarawak despite having auxiliary firefighters and community emergency response teams to complement the Sarawak Fire and Rescue Department (Bomba).
Deputy Premier Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas said this after he recalled a school fire in Betong being quickly put out with the help of auxiliary firefighters a few years ago.
He pointed out that having auxiliary firefighters is an effective means and necessary because the number of fire stations in Sarawak is not many.
“There are only 38 fire stations throughout the state compared to the whole of peninsula that has about 200 fire stations.
“The size of Sarawak is about the same with the peninsula, which is 124,449 square kilometres for Sarawak and 130,590 square kilometres for the whole of the peninsula.
“With that, I call upon the relevant ministry in Putrajaya to consider building more fire stations in Sarawak,” he said when officiating at the Fire Safety Campaign in conjunction with Gawai Dayak 2022 at Bomba Sarawak headquarters here yesterday (May 30).
He also commended the department’s training of community emergency response teams (CERT), which empowers the community to play an important role in the event of an emergency, especially in rural areas.
“With more CERTs, auxiliary firefighters and awareness for the people, the community will be able to help reduce fire incidents in Sarawak.
“I hope such programmes and training will continue to be conducted until the next generation so that they know how to act during an emergency,” he said.
In another note, Uggah revealed that there is a new instrument, which is able to detect fire in the early stages.
“I am interested to look into it because I think early warning will prevent a major disaster from happening,” he said.
