BINTULU: Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Sabah, Sarawak Affairs and Special Duties) Datuk Wilson Ugak Kumbong wants priority to be given to setting up a fire station at Sungai Asap.
He said this was because residents at the Bakun Resettlement Scheme (BRS) in Sungai Asap had been waiting patiently for one for more than 23 years.
“The residents of the new resettlement area have remained patient, all for the sake of development, namely to enable the construction of the Bakun hydroelectric power dam.
“I will write another letter to the Prime Minister. This matter cannot be ‘under consideration’ anymore.
“We want to build this fire station which will benefit more than 20,000 residents here,” he said in an interview that was broadcast live through the Facebook after visiting the victims of the Uma Bakah fire in Sungai Asap, Belaga, yesterday.
He urged the relevant ministries and agencies to do away with bureaucracy so that this matter can be realised.
Ugak said he has been highlighting the urgent need to establish a fire station in Sungai Asap since 2013.
“I contacted the Director General of Fire (Malaysian Fire and Rescue Department) Datuk Seri Mohammad Hamdan Wahid and Sarawak Fire Director Datu Khiruddin Drahman who informed me that the application for a new fire station had been submitted to KPKT (Ministry of Housing and Local Government) and approved, but still not implemented.”
Therefore, he appealed to the relevant ministries under the federal government to examine the list of new approved fire stations, especially the five that will be built this year.
“This is not the first time a longhouse in Sungai Asap has been hit by a fire.
“We have a (fire station) in Belaga but to get to Sungai Asap, it will take two and a half hours and upon arrival at the location, there may be nothing left except the pillars of the longhouse,” he said.
In the incident at about 2pm, last Thursday, a block of 15 doors in the Uma Bakah resettlement scheme was totally destroyed by fire while one residential door in Block E was partially destroyed.
Quick action by the Volunteer Fire Force (PBS) of Uma Daro Liling managed to prevent the fire that razed Block F from spreading to other blocks.
