A family of four lost their lives recently in Penampang, Sabah, and criticisms of the 999 system arose after firemen were said to have arrived late.
In the Dewan Rakyat today, communications and multimedia minister Annuar Musa said the emergency response system would be improved to display accurate location information for calls received by the 999 call centre.
Later, housing and local government minister Reezal Merican Naina Merican said the delay in Sabah firemen reaching the Penampang scene had been partially caused by the way the callers had given four different addresses for the location of the fire.
Firemen were led to the wrong location 4km away, which forced them to turn back to the actual scene of the fire.
Reezal told the Dewan Rakyat in his winding-up speech on the royal address that the firemen’s response time was only a minute later than the set target of 10 minutes on every emergency report.
The fire and rescue department’s forensic investigations found that the fire had started much earlier before the first call at 2.49am to 999. The emergency calls were first received in Ayer Keroh, Melaka, and then channelled to Sabah fire and rescue headquarters.
Saying that the 999 system was not under his ministry, Reezal said the ministry had recommended creating a response centre in Sabah itself and also on the east coast (of the peninsula). “Because when a report is made, the dialect of Sabahans might be hard to understand for someone from Melaka,” he said.
Another response centre could be set up in the northern zone of the peninsula, either in Penang or Kedah, while the centre in the east coast would be in either Kelantan or Terengganu.
Currently, there are only three response centres, in Ayer Keroh, Kuala Lumpur and Kuching, Sarawak.
The fire in Penampang, Sabah claimed the lives of Matthew Wong, 50, his wife Jecky Vun Kon Fung, 48, and their sons Brendan, 18, and Eric, 15.
Sabah fire and rescue department director Md Ali Ismail had said minutes were lost after the firefighters from the Penampang station missed the location as a result of the inaccurate information provided by the caller.