They were on the ledge within minutes of their arrival.
“We managed to talk the victim away from the ledge,” Khairul said. “We found out that she really had no intention of taking her life and was just seeking attention from her family.”
To Khairul, the reason did not matter. The intent was saving a life. This was one of the foci of the years of training firemen like him went through.
Khairul is the assistant director of Kuala Lumpur’s fire and rescue department.
He told FMT the target of arrival at the scene of any suicide attempt was eight minutes.
Once there, the rescuers will have to rapidly assess the situation. Is a family member around? What has pushed the victim to the edge? How do they reach the victim?
These are just some of the questions that need to be answered quickly.
Typically, a couple of firemen would try to engage the victim in a conversation to dissuade the person, in the process buying time for colleagues to grab him or her.
Once the rescue is done, police will take over.
Khairul said firemen were trained to always remain calm in any situation. There are risks involved, but they have confidence in their safety equipment.
However, there have been times when they were unable to save lives despite their best efforts.
“We are trained to be mentally tough,” Khairul said. “But when someone dies, we do feel downhearted and this feeling persists for some time.”
In the first seven months of this year, the Kuala Lumpur fire and rescue department rescued 20 people from suicide. Most of them were overwhelmed by financial and family issues.
Among the reasons was to draw the attention of family members who did not take their problems seriously. “That’s how they show people close to them that they are depressed,” Khairul said.
He advised people to look out for drastic changes in those close to them such as isolating themselves and refusing to talk to others.
Those who are stressed, distressed or have emotional problems should seek help from doctors or reach out to Befrienders at 03-7627 2929.