Incentive allowance for 1,158 Sabah firefighters
Published on: Saturday, January 11, 2020
By: Johan Aziz
Kamarulzaman (centre) cutting the ribbons to mark the opening of the RM170,000 Keningau engineering workshop building.
KENINGAU: State Fire and Rescue Department Director, Kamarulzaman Malik Abdullah said 14,000 firefighters across the country will be receiving incentive allowance starting this year.Of the total, he said, 1,158 are in the State.
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He said the government announced that effective Jan 1, all firefighters in the country including Sabah would be receiving an incentive allowance of RM200 each.
“I hope that this allowance will provide boosts to members of this department especially where daily tasks are concerned,” he told reporters after opening the Keningau Zone Fire and Rescue Department Engineering Workshop.
According to him, the engineering workshop cost RM170,000 to build and that it was completed on time within one and a half month and the scope of the work involved demolishing of the tower, building of an office, workshop work place and parking space.
Kamarulzaman said the department is currently reviewing all Fire Department posts after it was last reviewed in 2005.
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“We are in the process of reviewing one grade
“The machinery has grown and the positions that we created were appoved in 2005, so, it has been a long time. We expect more jobs and also grade increased based on risk that involed all (personnel) in the state,” he said.
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On Self-Rescue and Protection (PPE) for Fire department, he said there are supplies of equipment to protect the personnel during work.
He said that at present the fire jackets are not available because last year the department was not sucessful in its tender bid to acquire them but that he hoped this year it would be provided by central level and distributed to the firefighters.
With regards to the comfort of offices and quarters, Kamaruzaman said, for Keningau, Kudat, Sandakan and Papar, the building facility there were built in 1971.
He said in the last three years in Keningau, there have been upgrading from one house of two-bedroom to two houses to one house.
“In the future, the areas that need quarters, we will be build together with the station building.
“Currently, the practice is fire stations D and C are allocated with only four units of quarters for the station chief and also the operations officer. This is because in D station, it will use the Fire Support Team (PBB) Service whose members have houses nearby and can go to work at the station within a short distance.
“But living quarters are in need in some areas. In Semporna we have new quarters and a new fire station building. In Beaufort, there are living quarters but they are just starting to build the fire station. In Nabawan, there are four quarters and in the midst of upgrading while in Kota Belud, the station and quarters are being built,” he said.
On lack of equipment, Kamarulzaman said allocation for the department has been tightened due to damage that the department suffered last year.
He said that last year there were obstacles particularly on ready machinery especially for FRT for extinguish fire exercise and rescue operations.
At the same time, he said, the department also had an increase in fire stations during which the department have to place the machinery in the new stations but face constrains regarding provision for repairs.
He said that there were meetings and workshops to re-evaluate the return of the machinery so that they could achieve the machinery optimum at least by 70 per cent.
“At present, we are below 70 per cent which means we have been critical at 64 per cent but we still have to use the utilities for rescue work or emergency responses.
“Regarding the engineering site for this department, we are searching and in fact there is a site in Kolombong but there is not enough space so, we could go to Kinarut or Laya-Laya in Tuaran. We will apply to the top management in Putrajaya for approval in the next budget.
“If we look at the duties and responsibilities, it involve catching poisonous animals such as snakes, crocodiles and sometimes rescuing cats on top of trees. The department also respond to calls when animals such as monkeys enter houses,” he said.
He said the task of department now is not as before where it is now too huge.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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