Steven Chen
Whoever going around stealing and disabling the proper functionality of fire hydrants in public areas must be severely punished decries the people and factory owners in Kulai district here.
“As of April, three hundred and twelve public fire hydrants have been disabled by some irresponsible individuals who go round the district to steal the copper-made water hose connecting couplings attached to the fire hydrants”, said Kulai Fire and Rescue department chief, Masnon Idris.
He added that the situation is getting out of hand and appealed to the civic-conscious public to co-operate and help the department to monitor and control such theft.
He urged the public to contact the relevant authority if they happened to see suspicious individuals hanging around fire hydrants.
“Each copper-made water hose connecting coupling costs RM1,500” , Masnon said, “and the situation is made worst and critical as the department is having difficulties sourcing the replacement parts from reliable suppliers which will adversely inhibits our fire fighting effort in time of a fire emergency”.
Under such circumstances, the firemen will need to waste more valuable time to fight the fire which actually happened to a recent fire outbreak to one factory here in Taman Desa Idaman, he said.
He hope the public to show more responsibility to ensure that the such emergency public properties like the fire hydrants are not being vandalised.
The public should know that fire hydrants are an important component and are being used to help the public to fight fire, added Masnon.
Hence, he said, the public should also share the responsibilities in protecting these fire hydrants and not to damage it which can endanger the safety of the general public.
CJMY
