Sinkhole: Firefighters Must Be Equipped With Comprehensive Rescue Drills

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 4 (Bernama) -- Fire and rescue personnel must be equipped with more comprehensive rescue operation training to handle any sinkhole incidents in the country.

Kuala Lumpur’s Malaysian Fire and Rescue Department (JBPM) acting director, Rozihan Anwar Mamat said such rescue operation drills are necessary for their personnel to be better prepared to face similar cases in the future.

“To prepare for the future, we discussed with our search and rescue (SAR) team members the need to have frequent engagements with other agencies… for example, how we handled the flash flood incidents in Kuala Lumpur, where we identified 25 hotspots.

“If it rains heavily non-stop for 15 minutes at these hotspots, we will implement the standard operating procedure where every vehicle at the station must head to these locations… so, I see that a similar approach needs to be taken where we identify areas at risk of subsidence and carry out recovery or treatment drills,” he said in tonight's Bernama TV’s Ruang Bicara programme.

Also invited to the programme was JBPM Operations Division director Nordin Pauzi.

Meanwhile, Nordin said the recent sinkhole incident in Jalan Masjid India has been a significant lesson for JBPM, adding that it was not a failed effort when the SAR was halted as various efforts were made from the onset of the incident.

“We do not say we failed because we had made efforts right from the start and the SAR was only stopped after considering various factors… but this is something that rarely happens to us.

“Secondly, I noticed the coordination of various agencies in Kuala Lumpur and I hope that everywhere there will be a similar objective involving SAR and we need to be integrated because it will ultimately make our work easier,” he said.

On Saturday (Aug 31), the Minister in the Prime Minister's Department (Federal Territories) Dr Zaliha Mustafa announced that the SAR operation for the Indian woman G. Vijaya Lakshmi, 48, who went missing after falling into an eight-metre deep pit in Jalan Masjid India on Aug 23, had been stopped after nine days. 

-- BERNAMA