Show of appreciation: Nga presenting an award to a retiring rescue dog at the ‘Sentuhan Kejayaan’ programme in Kuala Lumpur. With him is Nor Hisham (left). — ART CHEN/The Star
KUALA LUMPUR: Fire disasters have cost the country and Malaysians over RM1.57bil in losses as of January to Sept 25 this year, says Nga Kor Ming.
The Housing and Local Government Minister said the significant losses highlighted the need to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the Fire and Rescue Department (Bomba).
He said the government would allocate RM1.43bil on 27 new physical and equipment programmes and 59 maintenance programmes for Bomba over the next five years.
“Combined with the dedication of our firefighters, let us uplift the dignity of our ministry, our firefighting force and our nation,” he said in his speech at his ministry’s “Sentuhan Kejayaan” programme here yesterday.
Nga also said that the use of the newly launched emergency call system, Next Generation Emergency Services (NG999), will help Bomba better locate and fight fires before they get out of control.
Speaking on the emergency services, he said over 160,000 prank calls to national emergency services have been recorded in 2025 as of September, making up around 2.28% of all Malaysian Emergency Response Services (MERS) 999 hotline calls in this period.
Nga added that 221 of these calls also resulted in firefighters being deployed – only to find there was no emergency upon arrival.
He warned that making fake calls to the emergency hotline is a criminal offence punishable under Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 and that strict legal action will be taken against those found responsible for the misuse of network services.
Under this law, emergency prank callers can be fined up to RM500,000 or face imprisonment of up to two years, or both, if found guilty.
Meanwhile, with the north-east monsoon (Monsun Timur Laut, MTL) season already here, almost 25,000 Bomba personnel are ready to deal with any emergency.
Bomba director-general Datuk Seri Nor Hisham Mohammad said 24,646 of its personnel were currently on standby as the monsoon season is expected to bring about potential floods and other disasters.
He said the manpower comprises 13,314 full-time firefighters, 2,315 auxiliary firefighters, 8,956 volunteer firefighters and 61 engineering officers.
Nor Hisham said a total of 29 rapid deployment teams (RDT) have been formed in 13 states and three fire academies, involving 356 personnel from Bomba special units.
He said this will be combined with a shift change for personnel at all Bomba stations across the country, from the normal practice of having 30% of staff on a 12-hour shift to the MTL norm of 55% on a 24-hour shift.
“Teams will be led by an operations commander and includes a minimum of four rescue personnel, equipped with a lorry, two boats and one four-wheel-drive utility vehicle for towing the boats,” he said in his speech at the same event.
Nor Hisham also announced that a new Fire and Rescue Department K9 Dog Detection Unit operation centre will be set up in Bertam, Penang to provide better K9 unit coverage for the northern states.
He said construction of the new 2ha centre at the Bertam Fire and Rescue Station is expected to cost RM19mil.
He said RM300,000 has been initially allocated for preliminary works such as detailed design and geological studies of the area, with the tender process for the centre to begin by 2026, with construction planned for two years from 2027 to 2028.
“Operations are then expected to begin by early 2029, according to the planned schedule.
“This centre will be key as we currently are forced to deploy our K9 units from Kuala Lumpur whenever there are any emergencies in the northern states, which is slow, as moving the dogs takes a long time,” he added.
