A Village on Fire: Over 100 wooden houses turned into clouds of dust

Today is a history and a great lesson in most of our lives. Virus calamity, bankruptcies, and decline in revenues are crashing down the country’s GDP, unemployment rate reported an all-time high in over 30 years, pushed more Malaysian into poverty, and rising suicides cases in our country. Despite the fact that many of us are strike by the pandemic and economic downturn, it has changed all aspects of our lives, from panic buying and stockpiling foods to a frenzy of toilet-paper buying. We have learned and discovered that this pandemic has boosted our usage of the internet to work, play, and connecting our social circle. However, we cannot deny the fact that all of these activities taking place at our most comfortable position – at home. The question that arises from the recent catastrophic and devastating house on fire put us emotionally stress, especially in times of economic recession. This has put a question mark personally as what would we have done differently to prevent it, especially at the time we need them most with new norms at work and home during this pandemic?

 

Lately, there are fire breaks out in Kota Kinabalu in several localities such as Sembulan, on Gaya Island, Lok Kawi, and Kampung Tanjung Aru to name a few. At the central city of Kota Kinabalu, Sembulan alone, it was the most destructive fire ever spreads through the water village for the past 35 years. With 73 houses are destroyed, over 200 residents lost their house which once called a ‘home’, and now taking temporary shelter before returning to their relative’s houses. 

 

Last year from March to August 2020, the first movement control order (MCO) has been reported 15,393 blazes while 1,955 cases were due to structural fires ignited by flames, while almost half of which caused by electrical fault, gas leaks, and sparks. In fact, between 2 to 7 percent were caused by candles, matches, and lighter. Seeing that, elderly above 60 years old are killed in fires, accounting for 56% from the first MCO in 2020. According to the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM), it has been substantiated that fire incidents has increased by 24.1% or 50,720 cases were reported in 2019 as compared in 2015. 

 

However, it is undoubtedly with the advancement of technology could minimise the risk of getting house on fire. For instance, smart smoke detectors (SSD) could send alerts to your smartphone in the event when there is detection of smoke, linked to all of your light system that allows to flash in the event of an emergency, and home security cameras are also activated to understand better on the root of causes that immediately upload into the cloud. Traditional smoke detector might have limitation on such features, while SSD could also send push notification whenever the battery is running out instead of the ear-shattering chirp. Speaking of smart light system, there is also smart plugs that allows users to control the plugs conveniently from the smartphone to turn off the power of home appliances. This could benefits Malaysian in which most of the cases are originated from electrical faulty and sparks due to the appliances that generate too much heat that cause a greater risk for fires. The ideal smart house could also come with smart stovetops that has built-in motion and heat sensors that automatically turn off when there is no one in the kitchen at pre-set amount of time. In fact, it could also recognise when there are unexpectedly increases in heat and turn off the stovetop if it detects a fire.

 

All things considered; it is fair to assert that not everyone can afford smart devices in their home while it is undoubtedly huge investment for lower to middle income groups, particularly at the rural area or villages. This is due to the fact that most villagers would prefer to build a wooden structure for their homes. However, with some practical tips for fire safety and fire risk assessment of residential building would tremendously help in making home more secured and protect from fire. For instance, fire safety design framework, escape routes, evacuation from the building, hose reel, portable fire extinguisher and hose cradle. Point often overlooked is simply public awareness that could be due to lack of knowledge in handling fire, panic situation that could result risky decision making, maintenance of the building to ensure that all facilities, service equipment and building elements are safe, and in place when needed to use. 

 

The government could also play important roles such as passing a legislative requirement in making smart plug compulsory to all new residential building due to the major contribution of fire incidents was caused by electrical faulty and sparks, just like the government passed a legislative requirement for fire resistant door set that helps in combat to reduce fire incidents in Malaysia. In fact, fire hydrant at rural areas could also reduce in fire incidents, to some extend prevents forest fire.

 

With these in mind, these will not only protect the community from unwanted events and loss of belonging and love ones, but also improve the life of the society.