Urban Wellbeing, Housing and Local Government Minister Noh Omar said the by-laws should be implemented to ensure the safety of people following a growing number of strata residences in the country.
“The ministry will be asking the Fire and Rescue Department to send letters to all state governments to remind them to adopt the by-laws as a measure to prevent fires in buildings.
“We have passed the laws but they should be adopted at state level and I hope all states will implement them from now,” he told reporters at the Tanjong Karang parliamentary constituency open house here today.
Noh was commenting on a news report by a local English daily that many states had not adopted the by-laws that ensured better building management as well as fire prevention.
According to the report, the by-laws, passed five years ago, were only gazetted by five states namely Sabah, Selangor, Terengganu and Penang while Sarawak has its own building ordinance.
Under the by-laws, all residential buildings constructed after 2012 that exceed 30 metres in height or 10 floors in the four states must be equipped with a fire detector, while residential premises under 18 metres in height built after 2012 must be equipped with fire extinguishers.
Commenting further, Noh said the fire at a flat in London in the United Kingdom which took many lives recently should be a lesson to all. He said it also proved that the implementation of the by-laws should not be taken lightly.
“Awareness in installing fire prevention gadgets should be taken seriously to enable initial fire extinguishing measures to be activated,” he said.
According to records, incidents of fire have taken 107 lives, injured 477 people and resulted in losses amounting to RM2.86 billion last year.