- Advertisement -
News

Nearly 30,000 personnel, over 1,000 assets ready for floods, says fire and rescue department

This includes five helicopters to be used for disaster monitoring, evacuation and assistance during floods.

Bernama
2 minute read
Share
Residents are evacuated following the massive floods that submerged Hulu Langat in Selangor last December.
Residents are evacuated following the massive floods that submerged Hulu Langat in Selangor last December.

A total of 29,103 officers and personnel from the Fire and Rescue Department (JBPM) are prepared with more than a thousand assets including five aircraft to be mobilised in the event of a disaster.

JBPM director-general Mohamad Hamdan Wahid said 1,065 light transport vehicles, 127 heavy vehicles and 403 marine vessels as well as five helicopters were ready for disaster monitoring, evacuation and assistance during floods.

Three of the aircraft are in Subang, Selangor, with the others in Bertam, Penang and Miri, Sarawak. 

He said the three aircraft are placed in Subang Selangor with one each in Bertam, Penang and Miri in Sarawak.

"The state JBPM should be prepared to receive orders from the operation management centre (PPO) to organise the movement of resources and logistics to the forward bases or flood-affected states.

"Human resources and logistics will also be deployed from states which are not affected by floods as instructed by the PPO within an hour of receiving the order," he told Bernama.

Hamdan said leave would also be frozen in stages for 80% of officers and personnel.

He said there were 5,496 locations identified as flood-risk areas throughout the country and 186 identified as at risk of water surges.

Meanwhile, Selangor JBPM director Norazam Khamis said the state department had listed six management elements to deal with floods in the state, including an additional 50% of vehicles comprising 43 units of boats and 64 units of other watercraft.

"Selangor JBPM has also set up an incident command system at the state headquarters linked with other zones, apart from identifying flood hotspots in 339 areas in Selangor," he said.

On Tuesday, Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said his ministry would procure two additional field hospital units at a total cost of RM47 million to deal with disasters and emergencies including floods.

The defence ministry is also on alert to assist the related agencies and is awaiting instructions from the central disaster management committee chaired by Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob.