Enthusiastic Women Firefighters Ready To Roll
By Sobrina Rosli

Bandar Seri Begawan - Women firefighters are all geared up for the challenge of proving that it's not all brawns that makes a firefighting team a success.

"We are so proud to be part of the first batch (of the all-female fire station in Berakas)," said Andi Karmilawaty Abdul Karim. "Before this team was put together, it was mostly the men who would take charge of the department. Now we are enthusiastic to be given the chance of getting more involved in the rescue cases."

In an interview with The Brunei Times, she related how women in the Fire and Rescue Department had to perform tasks that were mostly administrative in nature. .-Some were assigned to take emergency calls, and that's that.

"We are pleased to be part of this unit. It shows we are able to do what our male colleagues can do," said Norkadizah Omar Ali said.

"It is an exciting development for the women here," said Dk Karitina Pg Bakar who has been in the service for nine years. "Rescuing has always been my interest. This is an opportunity to develop my potential."

There are 37 members of Brunei's first all-female fire station, and their enthusiasm and confidence do not come from sheer pep talk. They have all gone through various gruelling training sessions for about a year now.

Six of the new firefighting unit were sent to Hong Kong and Singapore for rescue training.

The training programme consisted of hands-on experiences with real life emergency cases.

The women were also trained on techniques of handling road accidents, fire drills, reptiles and many more. They were also fully trained on various ways of employing the various tools and equipment for every emergency response.

Datin f'aduka Salmah Hanafiah, the guest of honour at the launch of the women's firefighting operation unit yesterday, said in her speech: "The women's involvement ill the mire and Rescue department is something to be proud of be cause this field used to he dominated by man." There are now 128 female officers and staff under the department.

The department started to recruit female personnel in 1987. The 38 females recruited for the first batch were given basic fire and rescue training for 24 weeks.

The recruitment of' female officers only started in 1997. Currently there are seven female officers. The officers were sent to undergo basic cadet officer’s course at Singapore's Defence Academy for nine months or to the Kuala Kuhu fire and Rescue Academy in Selangor, Malaysia.

In the first month of this year the department received 10 emergency calls. five of the calls were mule to bundle .snakes followed by cases including car fires, land erosion as well as jungle fire. From March 2006 to December 2006, the department received 89 calls in total.

The biggest number of calls was for handling snake cases of which there were 26 calls. Another 15 emergency cases were car accidents, followed by six cases of house fires.-- Courtesy of The Brunei Times

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