KOTA KINABALU – A probe into a fire that killed a family of four in Penampang last Tuesday has found that the firefighters were dispatched to the wrong address.
Sabah Fire and Rescue Department director Md Ali Ismail said the call sheet showed the wrong address given by one of the four callers who had alerted the 999 call centre about the fire.
“The Sabah operational centre and the Penampang fire station received the computer-aided dispatch at 2.52am and firefighters were deployed to the scene.
“Based on our record, the Penampang fire team arrived there at 3.04am,” he said in a statement today.
“The late arrival was caused by the call sheet showing the wrong address by one of the callers.
“Firefighters had missed the location of the fire and were forced to obtain the correct address from the headquarters. By the time they arrived, the fire had already spread to both the ground and upper floor of the two-storey terrace house,” he said.
Ali said a forensics report revealed that the blaze were caused by an electrical overload on the ground floor of the house, which also led to the flames spreading quickly.
Based on the fast rate of burning, the fire could have started at 2.32am, he added. The victims might not have been able to save themselves as the ground floor would have already been engulfed in flames, and all windows and exit doors were grilled and locked.
Ali noted that the 999 call centre had received four distress calls about 2.49am. The Melaka centre, one of three call centres in the country, received the first call that morning.
He said two of the calls were connected to the department's operational centre.
The fire on Tuesday that killed Matthew Wong, 50; Jecky Vun Kon Fung, 47; and, their sons, Brendan Wong, 18, and Eric Wong, 15, gained public attention in Sabah over the slow response from the Fire and Rescue Department.
The case also elicited comments from several political leaders, such as former Sabah chief minister Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal and current Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Mohd Noor, who called for the department to establish an emergency call centre in the state.
A witness and one of those who made the distress call claimed that the operator attending to the distress call asked unnecessary questions, resulting in the delayed action. – The Vibes, September 10, 2021
