Forest Fire Drill To Be Held Today
Forest Fire Drill To Be Held Today
30 August 2007
published by www.brudirect.com
Brunei Darussalam — The Fire and Rescue Department is to hold a district scale fire-fighting exercise today.
In a press release yesterday, the department announced an exercise; code-named “Exercise Gambut” is to take place in the Belait district starting at 8.30am.
Consequently sections of public roads will be closed during the duration of the exercise.
According to the statement, the Lumut-Seria bypass and the third south lane of the SeriaLumut highway will be closed.
Motorists are advised to use the old road that is the road going through Lumut, Anduki and Seria.
In an interview with The Brunei Times, Senior Superintendent Sabli Pg Damit, speaking as an officer of the National Disaster Management Centre (NDMC), said that the exercise is part of the result of the disaster management workshop earlier this month.
According to Snr Spt Sabli, the NDMC are identifying disaster hazards that frequently occur in the sultanate.
“We have identified the Belait district as at risk from forest fires, hence we are going to test our standard operating procedure of the district, said Snr Spt Sabli.
Areas of weakness are going to be identified in order to improve the cooperation between the Belait Fire and Rescue-Department and the NDMC, considered as Belait is prone to forest fires.
According to Snr Spt Sabli, a set standard operating procedure is key to timely and effective response to disasters.
He went on to add that the NDMC is to systematically identify disaster hazards that are prone in the four districts.
According to the senior official, he revealed that the Temburong district may be the next site of the district exercise.
