‘Be ready to face the worst. This will leave you with stability in your mind.’
— Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Indian spiritual leader.
AS part of a community, we must think about whether we are prepared for any eventuality. Are we prepared to face things that may threaten our lives, property and the environment?
The saying, ‘si vis pacem, parabellum’ (if you want peace, prepare for war) is an age-old adage formulated some 1,600 years ago by the famed Roman General Flavius Vegetius Renatus.
The underlying message behind this saying is the need to be ready to face anything and the urgency to rise above fear. This is applicable in the event of any eventuality or emergency.
Most emergencies and small-scale incidents or disasters start as a minor incident. If not managed or contained, it will then escalate to a major incident followed by crisis, disaster and eventually become a catastrophe.
The golden rule in such circumstances is the prompt and correct reactions and responses during the first five minutes. The actions of those involved within the time frame would determine the effectiveness of tackling the incident – whether damages caused are minor and how soon normalcy can be restored.
Disaster preparedness consists of a set of measures undertaken by governments, organisations, communities or individuals to better respond and cope with the immediate aftermath of an incident or disaster, be it human-made, industrial or one caused by natural hazards.
Being able to prepare for disasters can save countless lives, speed up recovery and also save cost.
With this in mind, the State Fire and Rescue Department (Bomba Sarawak) must undertake the noble responsibility of educating the community in Sarawak regarding preparedness and response capacity. This is ultimately aimed to prevent and reduce the potential impacts of incidents or disasters on the community.
Bomba Sarawak is keen to create a fire resistant and disaster resilient community in the state. This task is not for the faint of heart, especially considering Sarawak’s vast geographical size and how its population is sparsely distributed.
We want our educational and awareness engagements to cover people from all walks of life. From Telok Melano to Lawas, we want every inch of the Land of Hornbill to be covered.
Five years ago when I first reported for duty in Sarawak, I made a promise to see Bomba Sarawak implement fire safety programmes through the 3P (precaution, prevention and protection) approach.
I believe that through education, we can deliver the knowledge, skills and positive attitude towards fire safety to the community.
As such, various educational and awareness programmes have been introduced and carried out for Sarawakians.
Among the programmes are Bomba Community; Sedia Urus Risiko Is Rumah (CELIK SURI) for women; Fire Point; Summer Camp; Kita Selamat programme; Kelab 3K for children; Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) which is a joint programme with the state government and National Water Safety Activity Council.
To date, there are 943 Bomba Community Squads with 9,446 members trained; CELIK SURI has 67 teams with 539 members; under the Fire Point initiative there are 1,245 locations installed with 3,106 Portable Fire Extinguishers and 21 Summer Camp programmes have been conducted with 799 champions created.
At the same time, our newly introduced programme, Kita Selamat, is jointly organised with Petronas and we have trained over 60 village heads and community leaders to be fire marshals and champions in their respective communities.
In another joint venture programme with the state government funded by Petronas, we conducted 54 programmes and trained some 10,210 team members. The National Water Safety Activity aims to create awareness on water safety and for this we have conducted six programmes at six high risk drowning locations.
As for the young children, we have carried out 598 programmes under Kelab 3K with over 13,365 children involved.
Additionally, we have established a Community Learning Centre (CLC) together with Yayasan Farley at Batu Lintang Fire Station for public consumption as part of our fire safety engagement.
We hope that the community will continue to support and participate in the various fire safety learning programmes, disaster mitigation and reduction.
This is because fire safety and disaster mitigation must be continuously cultivated within the community across all age groups.
Through these engagements, Bomba Sarawak wants to create champions among the community members.
Building a resilient community needs far more than that, people willing to persevere literally through blood, sweat and tears to reach the top to gain confidence in dealing with any eventuality.
A person with knowledge and knows the skills to act properly and safely can save his/her own life as well as the lives of others.
We still need to change the mindset and attitude of the people. Only through the attitude, skills, knowledge, exposure and determination (ASKED) approach can we create positive awareness among the communities to face disasters.
We want the community to turn FEAR (face everything and rise) into great actions in their lives.
The views expressed here are those of the columnist and do not necessarily represent the views of New Sarawak Tribune.
