Call for more fire stations

SIBU: The Sarawak Fire and Rescue Department (SFRD) will continue to push for the construction of more fire stations throughout the state with the help of the Sarawak government.

Its director, Datuk Khirudin Drahman@Hussaini, said they are currently pushing for each parliamentary constituency to have at least one fire station.

“We have justification for this. All the studies have been conducted, but it depends on the government’s funding. We can only pray for it to be approved,” he said when met by reporters at a Hari Raya gathering at Bomba Central Sibu here today.

Khirudin said that there are four parliamentary constituencies that do not have a fire station, namely Stampin, Batang Lupar, Lubuk Antu and Julau.

“If based on state constituencies, 34 already have fire stations while another 48 have none,” he said.

Meanwhile, for Sibu, Khirudin said that the town only has three fire stations, which are located in Sibu Jaya, Sibu and Sungai Merah.

However, with the rising cases of accidents and the rapid growth of the town’s population and development, he said that a new fire station needs to be built in the Kemuyang and Bukit Lima areas.

“We are proposing Bukit Lima to have a fire station because once the area develops; we will need to have it there. We are also proposing for the Kemuyang area. This is to ensure that our response time is below 10 minutes,” he added.

Also present were Bomba Zone 4 Chief Andy Alie, Sibu Central Bomba Chief Suna Kaha and Sungai Merah Bomba Chief Abdul Mutalif Ja’afar.