Death rate from rescue operations was reduced to 30% last year

KUALA LUMPUR: The Fire and Rescue Department has managed to reduce the death rate during rescue operations to 30% last year.
Urban Wellbeing, Housing and Local Government (KPKT) Minister Tan Sri Noh Omar (pix) (Tanjung Karang - BN) said 107 deaths were recorded in 2016, compared to 153 in 2015.
"There's a lot of remarkable things that the department has achieved that many have not realised. They are the real unsung heroes.
"They managed to reduce the death rate during a fire rescue to 30%," Noh said during a press conference held at Parliament here.
He added the department's efficient method of managing a fire rescue had also reduced the amount of property losses to 34%.
"The training that our personnel underwent and the educational talks they have given to the masses about fire and rescue methods has managed to save more lives and property losses.
"And this is a major achievement for us," he said.
Noh said the department had also won the International Fire and Rescue competition held in Singapore, and was accredited with the Gold Certificate at the International Convention on Quality Control Circle that was held in Bangkok in November last year.
"About 16 countries competed in the International Fire and Rescue competition held in Singapore.This included the United Kingdom, France, China, Saudi Arabia, Australia, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore. And we managed to be the champion," Noh said.
Earlier, Noh said the department had inspected 16,240 from 210,050 registered buildings throughout the country last year to check for fire hazards.
He said based on the inspection, 2,194 premises were found to have fire hazards.
"Therefore, we have issued 9,699 Notice of Fire Hazard removal, where there was a premise that received more than one notice," Noh said when answering queries from Ahmad Marzuk Shaary (Bachok- PAS) at the Dewan Rakyat.