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The role of a firefighter has evolved from dousing house fires to more complex rescues carried out on land, sea and air.
In conjunction with International Firefighters Day on Saturday (May 4), the Fire and Rescue Department department’s new director-general Datuk Nor Hisham Mohammad spoke to StarMetro about the department’s role and future challenges.
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In conjunction with International Firefighters Day on Saturday (May 4), the Fire and Rescue Department department’s new director-general Datuk Nor Hisham Mohammad spoke to StarMetro about the department’s role and future challenges.
WATCH MORE: https://thestartv.com/c/news
SUBSCRIBE: https://cutt.ly/TheStar
LIKE: https://fb.com/TheStarOnline
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NewsTranscript
00:00In conjunction with International Firefighters Day, which falls on the 4th of May, the Director
00:06General of the Fire and Rescue Department, Datuk Nur Hisham Mohamed, spoke to Star Metro.
00:12The 51-year-old, who was appointed in January, shared his vision on the department's core
00:16duty of saving lives, fighting fires and the use of artificial technology in firefighting.
00:22Okay, each year the dry spell causes the El Nino phenomenon, which sees bush and forest
00:28fires ignite nationwide.
00:29How is the department coping and how can the public help?
00:32And can you share the statistics for the past three years?
00:35First of all, we cannot run away from the issue of this global warming, okay, and climate
00:41change.
00:42Because of this climate change, we find out the pattern of the, um, kita punya weather,
00:49a bit different recently.
00:51So last time, we have a widespread of, um, monsoon, a widespread of the flood area and
00:57widespread of the dry spells.
00:59But back to two, three years back, kita dapati bahawa, we have to focus on, uh, localised
01:06punya, orang cakap, hujan, and localised punya dry spell.
01:10Past two years, we experienced wet El Nino, okay?
01:15And since last year, April, we call it, we turn to neutral El Nino.
01:20So this year, kita panggil kepada normal El Nino.
01:23So based on this, um, orang cakap, phenomena, so this year punya, um, orang cakap, kebakaran
01:29hutan terbuka ini, the numbers itu sama dengan tahun 2021, in fact, a bit higher than 2021.
01:36Kita bersyukur, satu ialah perubahan paling besar di kalangan public di northern region.
01:42Dulu kita hadapi masalah berhubung dengan kebakaran jerami, right?
01:46So kebakaran jerami ini menjadi satu isu besar.
01:49So, sekarang ini, pertamanyalah jerami itu dah ada value.
01:54Sama ada sebagai, apa itu, animal feed, dan juga kepada, apa itu, alternatif kepada plastiklah.
02:01Jadi orang dah harvest, tetapi dia ada tunggul-tunggul.
02:04Bila tunggul-tunggul ini yang tinggal sikit-sikit ini, bila dia bakar pun tidak merebak banyak,
02:08dan kita pun banyak buat kempen kesedaran, dan dia tidak ada, orang cakap, tidak membakar
02:12macam dulunya sikitlah.
02:13What are the challenges faced by the department when tackling natural disasters, forest fires and floods?
02:19In certain area, kita dah lari daripada tradisional punya statistik, maksudnya traditional record.
02:26Those area yang biasa banjir, kita dapat prepare, Nelson.
02:30Kita dah tahu, kita ada dah mekanisme, kita tahu nak gerak dekat mana, kan?
02:34Tetapi, time to time, because of the intensity of the rain, kan, and concentration of the area,
02:42dia menyebabkan kawasan traditional itu terkeluar.
02:45So, for example, kita ambil di Johor, when it happened in Ca'ah, kan?
02:50Dulu Ca'ah, orang cakap, jarang, kita boleh jangka bila nak banjir,
02:54tapi because of the intensity, dia mari dan mengejut.
02:57Because of this non-traditional punya area, dan berlaku di urban area,
03:03so, they triggered kepada kita satu isu besar.
03:06It's urban flood.
03:09Untuk orang kampung, di Terengganu, di Kelantan, di Pahang,
03:13diorang dah prepare, di Muar, kota tinggi, right?
03:16They know already hujan akan sampai, diorang belum buat preparation.
03:19Tetapi, apabila berlaku di kawasan bukan tradisi ini,
03:22dia menyebabkan persediaan penduduk itu tidak sebagaimana yang kita orang cakap jangkakan.
03:28Dan diorang pun selesa bahwa tidak mungkin berlaku lah, macam tidak berlaku.
03:33Jadi, dia akan melibatkan mass evacuation.
03:37So, our concentration kepada effort kita sekarang ini,
03:40how are we going to do the mass evacuation?
03:43Jadi, kita orang cakap, dah banyak buat exercise,
03:46dah buat education kepada pihak polis juga, kepada ketua OCPD semua,
03:50berhubung dengan orang cakap, tanggungjawab di bawah incident command system,
03:55sepatutnya bagaimana mereka bertindak dan bagaimana kita dapat membantu bersama.
04:00So, bagi pihak jabatan, we cannot run away.
04:04Jadi, apa yang kita buat ya, we need to learn from others.
04:08Jadi, kita banyak hantar pegawai kita untuk participate dalam orang cakap lawatan ke luar negeri,
04:14seminar dan juga conference dan juga exercise ke luar negeri.
04:18So, point dia adalah, pertama ialah command and control,
04:21keduanya ialah we need capability to focus,
04:25pasal whatever it is lah, you kata hujan tadi ke,
04:28kita kena fokus,
04:30keduanya ialah kita kena tingkatkan our competency
04:33by, orang cakap, adapt and adopt from, orang cakap, other country punya experience lah.
04:39What about all the tall skyscrapers being built around the country?
04:43Is the department ready to handle such cases?
04:46Malaysia memang the top 10 country yang, orang cakap,
04:49dalam dunia yang ada bangunan paling tinggi di dunia lah.
04:52Those yang tinggi itu, we define as those yang lebih pada 150 meter lah.
04:57Then on top of that, kita ada 6 bangunan what we call super tall building,
05:01more than 300 meter.
05:03Salah satu keadaan yang utama yang kita telah ambil untuk super tall building,
05:07kita akan tubuhkan super tall council.
05:10Super tall council ini, kita akan lihat bagaimana untuk kita develop standard and guideline
05:17untuk beroperasi di bangunan yang tinggi, super tall ini.
05:21Contohnya, all this year, bomba kata bila terbakar, turun guna tangga, betul?
05:27You rasa turun 50 tingkat, nascent ok ke?
05:32Right now, kita buat.
05:34The kaedah now ialah kita kata, kita boleh guna lift itu, kita allow lift evacuation.
05:41Tetapi you must train the lift operator.
05:44Keduanya ialah kita juga lihat bagaimana alternative evacuation.
05:48For example, no need for you to turun sampai bawah kan?
05:51Some of the building, they have a community area in between.
05:55Mungkin you hanya turunkan 4 tingkat dan sampai itu, then you sepatutnya dah selamat.
05:59Or the common area lah?
06:00Common area.
06:01Okay, so itu yang tindakan-tindakan yang kita orang kata buat sekarang lah.
06:06Actually we are doing that.
06:07Since taking over as DG this year, what is your vision and vision for your department?
06:12Sebenarnya dia dah lay out all the things we need to do untuk memastikan industri kebombaan di Malaysia ini berada di paras yang lebih baik.
06:22So the next 10 years.
06:23So ini menjadi asas kepada kita lah.
06:27Dan saya ambil kepada tanggung jawab ini, saya bawa kepada 4 prinsip utama.
06:35Pertamanya, everybody have to think big, but act small.
06:39Then I go, the second principle is work more with less.
06:43Macam mana kita patut bekerja lebih dengan kapasiti yang kurang.
06:47And of course, the third one ialah, I always mention, beritahu mereka, we must work with honest and integrity.
06:55That's one common lah.
06:57The last one sekali, on the management side, selekar, always bekerja on the pattern and norm.
07:03Now with the age of the AI being used in many fields, the department are prepared to use such technology or is using it at the moment?
07:11And what do you foresee in the future?
07:14Saya rasa AI dalam jabatan bomba ini, we started 4 years back.
07:19Apabila kita mula gunakan 4 drone oleh unit udara yang kita equip dengan infrared.
07:27This infrared punya facility ini, can interpret us.
07:32Pertamanya, kalau berlaku kebakaran, the depth of the fire and the location of the fire seat.
07:40Jadi kita guna AI yang dalam itu, dia interpret kepada kita, ini yang patut you concentrate untuk lawan api.
07:47Keduanya, kita masih lagi tak berapa berjaya, tetapi saya hope one day kita berjaya guna drone ini,
07:55untuk mencari dan menyelamat.
07:58So because they use infrared, suppose they tau kan, orang tu dekat mana bergerak kan,
08:02jadi you naik setengah kilo atas, then you cover the whole area, you patutnya boleh detect.
08:08Tapi itu buat masa ini tidak boleh lagi berfungsi sebagaimana saya expect.