PBS hopes to cut response time following emergency call

BATU KAWAN: The establishment of the Volunteer Fire Brigade ( PBS) under the supervision of the Malaysian Fire and Rescue Department (JBPM) hopes to improve the response time following an emergency call, said JBPM director of the Fire Safety Division of JBPM, Edwin Galan Teruki.

He said the participation of the PBS hopefully could improve the response time to 10 minutes throughout the country, especially in areas that were short of fire stations.

“We already have 298 fire stations and we hope to achieve at least 80 per cent of the response time in areas especially in Sabah and Sarawak.

The setting up of the PBS is also seen to be able to give a faster response time for areas that lacked fire stations,” he told a media conference after the briefing on the Fire Services Act 1988 (Amendment) here yesterday.

On April 4, the Dewan Rakyat had approved The Fire Services (Amendment) Bill 1988 to place the PBS under the supervision of JBPM.

Edwin said that in the briefing, he had also emphasised on the Fire Safety Organisation ( OKK) which focused on improving safety and fire prevention at risky places.

He said the department would also deploy Fire Safety Managers and Fire Safety Officers at risky places such as high-rise buildings, factories with inflammable materials and so on.

Meanwhile, Penang JBPM Director, Saadon Mokhtar, who was also present at the media conference, called on all owners of business premises to renew their fire extinguisher licences with registered contractors if their licences had expired. — Bernama