IT is the duty of Fire and Rescue Department personnel to save those who are in danger but people often forget that these workers have also been traumatised in the course of their work.

Auxiliary fireman Muhd Safri Bakrin, who was in the search and rescue team for the December 16 Batang Kali landslide, said his most disturbing experiences involved children.

He said he nearly broke down into tears whe his team found their first dead body, a child, at the Father’s Organic Farm campsite.

He said a man at the campsite had urged the team to save his wife and son, who were trapped in a car that was buried by earth

“The male victim started shouting something in Chinese. He asked his wife to honk.

“My team started searching in the dark, in ankle-deep mud, and then we heard the horn and caught a glimpse of the car’s hazard signal blinking under the soil.

“We started digging and found the car with the mother and son inside,” Safri told The Malaysian Insight.

Safri said the mother wanted her son to be rescued first.

“We didn’t want to complicate the situation so we did as she asked. When we held him, we knew he was already dead.

“I carried the child. I knew he was dead. The body had already turned blue and he was bleeding from the nose,” he said.

Safri said he was reminded of his own child at that time.

It was hard breaking the news to the mother, he said.

“The mother desperately wanted her son to be saved but we knew he was dead.

“At that moment, I wanted to break down but I had to control myself.

“Although our duty is to rescue people, incidents like this leave a mark. It really saddened me,” he added.

Thirty-one people, many of them children, were killed in the 2.30am landslide, which saw tonnes of earth come crashing down on the campsite.

Sixty-one people survived the disaster. They were either rescued or had scrambled to safety in time.

Kuala Kubu Baru fire and rescue station operations commander Mohd Adnan Firdaus Abd Jamil, who was the first responder, said he was shocked to hear the initial report that almost 100 people were trapped in the soil.

He said the prospect of having to find so many people was daunting, even for someone as experienced as he was.

“I cannot discourage or tell anyone not to do take part in outdoor activities but the people who so such things have to be more vigilant and make sure the places they go to are licensed,” he said.

The landslide is the second most deadly disaster in Malaysia, after the 1993 Highland Towers condominium collapse which claimed 48 lives. – January 15, 2023.