KOTA KINABALU: Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) demands Bomba and other emergency services to stop referring to KL or Putrajaya HQ even for fires and emergencies. Such remote control even for emergency services is contrary to MA63. KL is more than 1,500km across South China Sea.
“It is also ridiculously impractical and slow to have to divert emergency calls to Putrajaya or KL. How can we expect the person answering the call at Putrajaya know the location in Sabah?” asked Edward Dagul, Deputy President of SAPP.
Since MERS 999 started, all emergency numbers came under one centralized number 999 controlled by Putrajaya. MERS 999 includes 5 departments like the Police, Fire & Rescue Department (Bomba), Malaysia Civil Defence Force (APM), Hospital and Maritime.
“The recent deaths by fire raised doubts on the ability of the Fire & Rescue Department to respond quickly and effectively,” Edward said.
He said the lives of 4 family members who were burnt to death in Taman Hungap Penampang could have been avoided if not for the miscommunication and the precious minutes or seconds lost in dealing with MERS 999 based in KL.
“Incidents happened when Kuching was thought to be in Sabah similar of what happened when the staff have no idea where Penampang or Donggongon were located,” he added.
As such, he said Sabah should control its own 999 line to avoid miscommunication and provide faster response or action in the event of such life or death emergency situation.
