Members of the Malaysian volunteer fire associations posing in the flooded streets of Hat Yai in November 2025. - Photo courtesy of Raymond Leong
KUALA LUMPUR: When Tropical Cyclone Senyar hit part of South-East Asia on Nov 21, 2025, it dumped the heaviest rain that Thailand’s Hat Yai had seen in the last 300 years.
The resulting flood rose up to the second floor, trapping a Malaysian family of 15 inside a four-storey hotel, including an 80-year-old woman and a six-year-old girl.
“I was panicking thinking about their safety. They were stranded for almost a week, made worse by the language barrier, which got in the way of them asking for help,” said Md Arif Zaidullah, 54, a family member who had remained in Malaysia.
With the nearest aid station more than 1km away, the family found it impossible to collect supplies. Some of them even developed gastritis as food was running out.
Coming to their aid were surprisingly familiar faces: fellow Malaysians serving as volunteer firefighters, who had joined the Thai authorities’ rescue operations. One of them was Raymond Leong, who led the team.
“I kept pestering Raymond because I could not reach my family. I found out about him on Facebook and reached out to him for help,” Arif told The Straits Times, relating how his family’s mobile phones had run out of power due to the prolonged electricity outage.
At the peak of the floods, parts of the city – a popular weekend getaway for many Malaysians – were submerged under more than 7m of water, leaving residents and tourists alike marooned and cut off from aid and supplies for days.
Arif’s family was eventually evacuated by Leong’s team on the fifth day, after floodwaters had subsided, and they returned safely to Malaysia.
“It is a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and I am very thankful for their help,” he added.
When Md Arif Zaidullah’s family went to Hat Yai, they ended up trapped in their hotel room when Tropical Cyclone Senyar caused flooding in the area. - Photo: Md Arif Zaidullah
Little-known volunteer firefighters step up
Leong is a member of the Sungai Petani Volunteer Fire Association from the northern Malaysian state of Kedah, which belongs a little-known network of volunteer firefighters operating in Malaysia.
Malaysia has 489 registered volunteer fire teams, or bomba sukarela, many of which are actively involved in domestic disaster relief operations. The Hat Yai mission marked the first time they had mounted a coordinated rescue effort outside the country.
There are around 13,600 volunteer firefighters in Malaysia, according to official data
The Volunteer Fire Association scheme, established under the 1988 Fire Services Act, exists to act as first responders in emergencies and to support the Fire and Rescue Department of Malaysia in its operations.
It was created to fill gaps in coverage in areas far from the nearest fire station, such as rural villages and plantations.
At the same time, it also formalised volunteer groups that had existed since pre-independence, particularly in tin-mining towns and Chinese “new villages”, which were part of a post-World War II programme by the British to resettle rural ethnic Chinese in Malaya into guarded compounds closer to towns to cut them off from the communist insurgents.
Each volunteer fire association is attached to a nearby fire station, which provides training and coordinates operations within its area.
Leong, 48, works in the security sector and has been a volunteer firefighter for 18 years. He told ST that his team of nine volunteers led the initial push into Thailand after learning of the scale of the disaster in Hat Yai, a city popular with tourists that is located just an hour’s drive from the Malaysian border.
“We tried to enter Thailand on Nov 23. At that point, we did not even know if we would be allowed in with our rescue equipment,” he said.
“After we were allowed in, we immediately relayed the information to other volunteer fire associations on the procedures involved.”
Within days, Leong mobilised 128 volunteer firefighters from 27 associations across the country, including teams from Selangor, Pahang and Johor, to rescue stranded Malaysians and deliver aid to local residents.
Deploying 17 boats and 20 off-road vehicles, the team rescued over 3,000 people, including Thai locals and foreigners from countries such as China, Pakistan, Cambodia and Singapore.
Leong said that both the Thais and the Malaysian tourists were surprised to see Malaysian volunteer rescuers on the ground.
“The Thai people thanked us,” he said.
Scott Pang (third from right) and members of the Seri Serdang Volunteer Fire Association posing in front of the fire station where they are based. - Photo: Hadi Azmi
Recognition boosts volunteer fire brigades
The importance of volunteer firefighters became more apparent recently as groups from Johor have also been mobilised to help in putting out the peat fire in Pengerang, Johor.
The fire which started on Jan 23 had expanded to cover an area roughly the size of 120 football fields by Jan 27 – it was one of the hot spots in the state causing haze in some parts in Singapore.
Not only have the efforts of Leong and his team in southern Thailand drawn praise from Malaysia’s Fire and Rescue Department director-general Nor Hisham Mohammad, the attention generated by the mission has also benefited some volunteer groups at home.
Selangor’s Seri Serdang Volunteer Fire Association recently received a new fire engine donated by a social media influencer.
Penang-based influencer Han Xiao Ai, 29, who has more than 2.65 million followers on social media platforms, donated the 5,000-litre-capacity engine in early January after following the group’s relief efforts in Hat Yai.
Scott Pang, 27, from the Seri Serdang association, said the donation would allow his team to better serve the community.
“We are funded by community donations, so this is a great addition for us,” he said, noting that his association previously relied on a smaller engine with a 1,500-litre capacity.
An offroad vehicle from the Sungai Petani Volunteer Fire Association parked on a flooded street in Hat Yai, Thailand. - Photo: Hadi Azmi
Founded in 2008, the Seri Serdang group now has 50 members from Malay, Chinese and Indian backgrounds – a mix Pang said reflects the spirit of “muhibbah”, or goodwill, among Malaysia’s different communities.
All its members are below 40, which is a conscious decision made to ensure that the team is agile and able-bodied to go into physically demanding rescue operations, which include water rescues.
Pang manages a private ambulance service; others in the group include officers at the state legislature’s office, medical assistants, and also former firefighters who left their full-time job in the force but still want to contribute.
“The work is difficult but we still want to do it,” Pang said.
“Seeing the joy in the faces of the people we rescue is something money cannot buy.” - The Straits Times/ANN
