Emergency Calls Up

25 December 2007

Bandar Seri Begawan – The Fire and Rescue Department has received more emergency calls this year.

According to January to mid-December 2007 figures, the department received a total of 2,898 calls. However, 20 of them were prank calls. Last year, the department received 2779 calls, and 25 of them were prank calls.

More than 1,000 man-hours were put in by personnel of the Fire and Rescue Department in responding to emergency calls this year. Up to Dec 16, personnel clocked in a total of 1,124 hours and seven minutes attending to emergency calls. Last year, personnel put in a total of 1,172 hours and five minutes.

The number of fire-related calls, meanwhile, rose slightly from 233 calls in 2006 to 243 calls this year. Most of the calls this year were concerning electrical fires (87), followed fire on vehicles (61) and house fires (49).

The Fire and Rescue Department advise the public to take extra precaution when leaving premises by ensuring that they switch off unused electrical appliances and not to overload sockets.

Meanwhile, 135 emergency calls that reported bushfires were recorded up till December 16 this year and involved an area of 153.65 hectares, while 133 calls reporting bushfires were recorded in 2006, with an area of 154.7 hectares.

The top three emergency calls in 2007, recorded up till December 16, were requests for assistance in catching animals (821 calls), removing fallen tree trunks (470 calls) and hunting animals (239 calls). In 2006, the numbers of requests for catching animals, removing fallen trees and hunting animals were 781, 351 and 306, respectively. — Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin

24. November 2017/by GFMCadmin