In the early hours of the morning (2.30am) on the 7th of September 2021, a family of 4 from Sabah perished in a house fire, after an alleged delay in arrival of firefighters.
Based on reports, husband Matthew (50) with his two sons, Brendan (18) and Eric (15), trapped in a room upstairs while wife Jecky (48), in the bathroom, were all found dead, when the firefighters had arrived.
Sabah Malaysian Fire and Rescue Department (JBPM) director noted that an investigation found an electrical overload on the lower level of the house, and a fire load, is what caused the blaze and its spread.
"The victims could not save themselves because the ground floor of the house had been filled by smoke and all the windows and exit doors were installed with grilles besides being locked," he said.
Further reports claimed that the fire department's efficiency had come into question, when a witness (victim family's neighbour), stated that the responder to the emergency had wasted too much time asking questions, instead of sending for help.
He explained that his phone log showed he first called 999 at 2.48am, and then again at 3.04am, with the firemen only arriving minutes after the second call. He felt like a lot of time was wasted explaining the location of the home to the respondent.
By the time the team of 11 arrived, the fire had spread from the ground floor to the upper floor of the house, burning the family, their house and their two cars.
However based on JBPM director, the state fire department only received the call at 2.52am and arrived at the scene at 3.04am — 12 minutes later, due to the fact of confusing/hassling SOPs, as well as receiving the wrong address.
The SOP dictated that all MERS999 (Malaysian Emergency Response Services 999) calls were to be directed to Kuala Lumpur (KL) first, before being redirected to the respective stations.
Now being criticized by the Sabah government, the Chief Minister remarked that safety issues such as a fire should not be referred to KL first, and that this had wasted time, time which could have been used to rescue the victims instead.
