JOHOR BARU: The Fire and Rescue Department is hoping to fill up 1,483 vacancies to improve its response time and boost the number of firemen deployed to stations nationwide.
Its director-general Datuk Nor Hisham Mohammad said it hopes to take in at least 500 trainees in two phases at the department’s training centres nationwide.
“There will be two more intakes to ensure we have adequate manpower manning all our 338 stations nationwide,” he told reporters after presenting excellence and long service awards to 175 firemen and auxiliary firefighters here yesterday.
At present, Nor Hisham said the department has 13,265 personnel nationwide.
He added that the department depends on auxiliary firefighters to fill its vacancies, but also faced an issue of high turnover as its personnel are being pinched by others.
“By 2028, we expect to have some 150 compact fire rescue tenders that are suitable for cities and urban areas, and also to manoeuvre along narrow roads in villages nationwide.
“For a start, we will be sending at least two of the five engines we will be getting soon to Johor.
“We are also refurbishing at least 30 old fire engines at a cost of RM600,000 each to be used nationwide,” he said, adding that the refurbished fire engines could continue to operate for another 10 years according to international specifications.
Nor Hisham said it is also important for Johor to be ready to handle any major fires and disasters, especially with the rapid development due to the creation of the special economic zone with Singapore and special financial zone in Forest City.
“An example of a mega development will be the Forest City, which is a mixed development project on a man-made island near the Port of Tanjung Pelepas.
“This is a new kind of challenge in terms of fire safety enforcement,” he said, adding that there are also plans for large-scale solar farming and the setting up of infrastructure for electric vehicles in Johor.
On a separate matter, Nor Hisham said last year, Johor received the second highest number of distress calls at 14,451, after Selangor.
“This was an increase from 13,929 calls in 2022,” he said, adding that last year, there were RM134mil in losses due to fires statewide compared with RM73mil in 2022.
Some RM1.3bil in property was saved last year in Johor compared with RM1.2bil in 2022, Nor Hisham said.
