By Nancy Nais
KUCHING, Oct 13: Six “new officers” from the Fire and Rescue Department (Bomba) Malaysia has finally arrived here.
The long-awaited call of duty for these four-legged officers (K9) in Sarawak is highly anticipated by the department’s Unit Pengesan after months of delay.
The United Kingdom (UK) trained dogs comprises four English Springer Spaniels (named Wilf, Sue, Bella and Cliff), a Border Collie named Daisy, and a Labrador named Bailey. They departed Kuala Lumpur International Airport and arrived in Kuching at about 1.45pm.
When met at MasKargo, state Bomba director Khirudin Drahman told DayakDaily that the long-awaited day had finally arrived for them and the Sarawak community.
“The dogs will have to go through one month quarantine as per Department of Veterinary Services. After that, they can start joining our operations. With these six, they will increase our fire and rescue services for the community,” he said.
Calling the six “valuable living assets”, Khirudin explained that each of them had their own speciality.
“They will be divided into three disciplines, namely fire investigation, wilderness, and cadaver. The fire investigation discipline serves to detect the cause of a fire, particularly in arson cases.
“The wilderness discipline is meant to track victims in the forest, while the cadaver discipline serves to track dead victims either on land or collapsed building or in rivers and lakes,” he said.
The K9 unit station is in Serian, which will be used for deployment across the state.
Each dog, together with its handler, is specially trained in specific categories.
Bomba’s first K9 unit was established in Kuala Lumpur in 2003. It has proven useful in operations such as search and rescue. — DayakDaily
