Ramps up urban fire safety awareness

KUCHING: The State Fire and Rescue Department (BOMBA Sarawak) will intensify its efforts on fire safety awareness and educational programs for city dwellers next year.

BOMBA Sarawak director Datuk Khirudin Drahman noted the concerning number of fire incidents in cities compared to suburban and rural areas.

He observed that city dwellers seem very dependent on the department’s fire services, unlike the communities in suburban and rural areas, who have become local champions in emergencies.

BOMBA Sarawak director Datuk Khirudin Drahman.

“There are many human activities being conducted in big cities. Unfortunately, there is a perception among city dwellers on how fire stations are within their proximity and can respond swiftly in an event of emergency. This perception leads to city dwellers becoming careless and complacent which contribute to the 3L syndrome – ‘Lupa, Leka dan Lalai’ or ‘forgetfulness, carelessness, and negligence’. This is something that the department wants to change,” he told the New Sarawak Tribune.

Since becoming BOMBA Sarawak director, Khirudin has emphasised education through the 5E approach (education, enforcement, engineering, emergency management, and economic incentive).

From January to November this year, the department successfully conducted 42 large-scale fire safety awareness and educational programmes, along with various smaller engagements, benefiting numerous communities throughout Sarawak.

The programmes include the children’s fire club (Kelab 3K), Celik SURI (Sedia Urus Risiko Isi Rumah), BOMBA Komuniti, Longhouse Fire Campaign, Fire Point, Summer Camp, and Community Emergency Response Team (CERT), among others.

BOMBA Sarawak’s programmes.

He also said that these programmes have equipped community members with the right firefighting knowledge and skills, significantly reducing property damage and loss of life in fire incidents.

“For the past five years, the department has put in great efforts towards our fire safety awareness and educational programmes because we want the community to realise and accept how they are responsible for their own safety. Through these community engagements, we can see how community members are now more aware of the dangers of fire and how to respond correctly in the first five minute of a fire incident. This is why we want to do more engagements with city dwellers and those in suburban as well as rural areas,” he explained.

Khirudin described the department’s plan to work on this in parallel, noting that this mission is registered in the Sasaran Kerja Utama (SKU) or primary work objective for the next year.

BOMBA Sarawak director Datuk Khirudin Drahman.

He said the department will continue forming strategic partnerships and collaborations with various organisations to organise fire safety awareness and educational programmes to achieve this mission.

“One of our main objectives is to create local champions among community members and for them to take ownership of the programmes we conduct. Through active participation, community members come to realise that fire safety is their responsibility rather than the men and women of BOMBA. Approximately 99 per cent of fire is caused by human negligence and it can be avoided with the 3P (precaution, prevention, and protection) approach. That is why we want to create awareness and integrate these facts into the community members as it also contributes towards building a disaster resilient community under the ‘Dasar Kebombaan dan Penyelamatan Negara’,” he said.

This year, the department collaborated with Petroliam Nasional Berhad (PETRONAS), Petroleum Sarawak Berhad (PETROS), Bintulu Port Authority, Farley Foundation, Sarawak Energy Berhad (SEB), and Press Metal Sdn Bhd, among others.

The department also worked with the state government through various ministries and agencies to conduct these programs.

BOMBA Sarawak’s programmes.

Khirudin encouraged elected local representatives to collaborate with the department for the benefit of their respective constituents.

“This strategic collaboration is crucial especially for constituencies in rural areas. We want to prepare community members on how to manage and handle emergencies considering it may take a while for the nearest fire station to respond.

Sharing this year’s overall statistics, Khirudin said the department received a total of 9,744 emergency calls, namely 1,989 for fire, 7,522 for rescue, and 228 for special tasks.

“There is a decrease in the number of emergency calls received this year compared to 9,845 in 2022 and 14,053 in 2021,” he said.

BOMBA Sarawak’s statistics for 2023