27

The Hong Kong high-rise fire should serve as a slap in the face. There are questions to ask, safety measures to reconsider or tighten, primarily because lives are at stake – both the rescue personnel and victims affected. Here’s why you should learn from this incident, which claimed the lives of 65 so far, with many more injured and others still unaccounted for.

1. Never look down on a firefighter and his/her job. Always take time to thank your abang or kakak bomba, please – especially if they’re kind, polite and efficient when dealing with people and situations where emotions may run high.
2. Re-examine high-rise buildings. Where I am based, high-rise buildings seem to crop up every now and then. Perhaps it is high time authorities look into building safety, especially for their fire risk(s) and evacuation steps, procedures and measures.
3. Never take your fire drill or latihan kebakaran for granted, no matter whether you’re in school, office(s) or other workplace(s). Many would not realise the importance of this exercise until a fire emergency really happens in front of your eyes.
4. Sometimes, no matter what you learnt or picked up from a fire drill, evacuation can still be a challenge. While our hearts break for the affected residents of the residential complex that got raged by the fire, let us not forget about the firefighter who died while attempting to rescue the residents.

           For the elderly, those with limited vision, mobility, sense of smell and hearing capacities,               evacuating a building can be complicated as they would need assistance from more                     alert, able-bodied, more capable caregivers. Escaping via the stairs can be much more               difficult for these parts of the population.

5. More talks and awareness campaigns need to be held in public places like schools and malls – as this is where it would be best to capture the public. In Malaysia, public schools tend to have many floors and the library is built on one of the top floors, making these spots of a higher fire risk. While fires don’t always occur in schools and public places like malls, they can be of higher risk as these places tend to be multi-storey and not always purpose built… unless you’re talking about private or international schools, which only a certain section of the population can afford. As for public places, malls would be one of those venues where firefighters can more constantly hold talks about public safety and fire risks, especially because malls have a host of different things that can catch fire.
6. Where possible, when choosing a certain place to live in/study at/work at/shop at, do bear in mind proximity to things that can catch fire or combustibles. If you’re lucky, you may live/study/work nearby a fire station, other than a police station. Use of materials within the building/premise in question must be thoroughly researched to minimise the risk of a fire.
7. You’ll never take a fire incident lightly – no matter the scale of the blaze. Here’s to hoping that by the end of this article, you’d be transfer/apply this to your car, workplace, kitchen, bedroom, study room, home office and/or office.
8. If you’ve been fooling around by making prank calls to the nearest fire station just because you think it’s funny, this incident should serve as a wake-up call for you to stop. Time, especially in emergency and tense situations, is valuable. These personnel are available to help you put out fire(s) and for whatever situation you may be in that render(s) their services valid. Please remember that there are others who may need their services as soon as possible.