Don’t blame Sesco for cutting off the power late — Bomba

KUCHING: Fire and Rescue Department ( Bomba) state assistant director of operations Tiong Ling Hii has defended Sarawak’s sole power provider Sesco regarding the latter’s response time during emergencies.

He noted that in cases involving fires, many would often blame Sesco for not cutting off the power soon enough.

According to Tiong, these people are actually oblivious to the fact that Sesco vehicles are not equipped with sirens.

“I can tell you, a lot of people blame Sesco for cutting off the power late. But you have to remember that their vehicles do not come with a siren.

“So how can they move fast on the road especially during a traffic jam?” he said during a news conference at Kuching Port Authority in Pending, here yesterday, adding that Sesco’s response time to any scene is 45 minutes.

Tiong also pointed out that every agency responding to emergencies has set their respective response time.

“For Bomba, we must respond within 10 minutes to incidents taking place in city areas while for rural areas, the response time is 20 minutes depending on the distance.”

Citing the longhouse fire in Sibuti, on Wednesday as an example, he said the department could not reach the scene within the stipulated time due to the long distance.

“It (response time) still depends on the distance. Like yesterday (Wednesday), it took more than an hour. We admit that the response time is a bit long because of the distance, which is 85km from the nearest fi re station in Miri.

“On the part of Bomba, we will set up a volunteer team to respond (to future incidents at faraway locations) in order to bring the fi re under control,” he said.

With help from the Malaysia Civil Defence Force (APM) and state Welfare Department, Tiong said a nearby hall has been made into a temporary shelter for the fi re victims.

“Assistance has been rendered to the 450 victims,” he said, adding that the probe into the fire is ongoing.

It was reported that the fire, which started around 4pm, took less than 15 minutes to consume the 81- door longhouse and several other individual houses in Bekelit, Sibuti.