KUCHING: Thirty thousand job openings have been created at the Fire and Rescue Departments nationwide.
State Fire and Rescue Department (Bomba) director Khirudin Drahman told the New Sarawak Tribune: “There are 30,000 job openings divided by a ratio of 1:1. It is a five-year programme development made in stages as it depends on the government budget.”
“Fifteen thousand posts are for full-time firefighters (pegawai sepenuh masa) and 15,000 are for auxiliary firefighter (pegawai bomba bantuan) but the priority is for the auxiliary firefighters.
“Maybe for this year in Sarawak, there will be an intake for 1,000 new recruits and so on the next year until the posts are full,” he said here.
Regarding the development throughout Sarawak, especially building construction, Khirudin said: “The public frequently ask us, how high can a fire truck’s ladder reach in an emergency response? If we look at our facilities and equipment here, we take on the concept of Internal Fire Fighting.”
“The conduct is called fire safety design philosophy, where in terms of conduct, we handle fire emergency inside a building beforehand than the rather conventional way, react once there’s a fire.
“This is made possible as every building design must be consulted by the Fire and Rescue Department as an initiative to prevent widespread fire.
“There are four elements in this concept: Fire engineering (Fire Safety Control), Education (Fire and Safety Course), Fire and Rescue Department enforcement and Emergency Management (Train Building owner on fire prevention scenario).
“These four stages are the concept of fire safety design philosophy, as the first five minutes in a fire emergency are critical,” said Khirudin.
This was reflected in the case of the recent fire at the Petronas Liquefied Natural Gas factory in Bintulu that caught fire but was quickly put out before firefighters arrived.
“This is the concept utilised by the Fire and Rescue Department beforehand.
“The community needs to be aware of fire and safety prevention. Don’t wait for the Fire and Rescue Department,” he said.
“If the community is well versed in fire and safety, it can minimise the damage because during a fire, it’ll take some time for firefighters to get to the scene.”
Yesterday, Khirudin attended the closing ceremony of a course, which saw the participation of 52 students and 20 cadet teachers at the Fire and Rescue Department headquarters here.
Also present were SMK Kuching High principal Tan Kiang Tuang, Sarawak Management, Development and Humanitarian Sector representative Leong Chin Chin, Senior Fire superintendents Janggan Muling and Tiong Ling Hii.
