Firemen monitor social media for 999 situations

KUCHING: When a fire broke out at SMK St Teresa’s hall last October, photos and videos of it were rapidly shared on social media as a large crowd of onlookers gathered at the scene.

However, no one called the Fire and Rescue Department until the then-Kuching Zone fire chief Tiong Ling Hii, who happened to drive past the school, made the call at 5.07pm.

By that time, the fire had been raging for seven minutes.

This is one of the four incidents which the department was alerted to via social media rather than by phone calls, since it began monitoring Facebook and Twitter for emergency situations and public feedback two years ago.

State Fire and Rescue director Nor Hisham Mohammad said the other incidents were a flooded school in Tanah Puteh, Serian, in 2015; a ship catching fire in Bintulu last November; and a house on fire in Samariang this year.

The department only came to know about these incidents through Facebook, he said.

Nor Hisham said that it was for this reason the department decided to monitor Facebook and Twitter to be on the lookout for emergencies.

The Sarawak Fire and Rescue Department was the first to issue an official directive to its officers on monitoring social media, he said.

“We have tasked the officers in the control room, as well as senior operations officers, including myself, to monitor popular Facebook pages,” he said.

However, Nor Hisham stressed the importance of calling 999 to report an emergency before recording and uploading photos, videos or news of it on social media.

He said dialling 999 ensures a quick response because the system pinpoints the caller’s location and automatically identifies the nearest hospital, police station, fire station or other emergency services.