A SIDE-SCAN sonar and a few more sniffer dogs are among the specialised “equipment” high on the Sarawak Fire and Rescue Service Department’s wish list for this year.

Sarawak fire chief Khirudin Drahman said his department needs the equipment to enhance its capabilities “in facing the complexity of our tasks”.

“Speed is always of the essence in SAR (search-and-rescue) operations,” he told The Malaysian Insight.

Last week, Khirudin saw his men in Sibu still using grappling hooks, which they dragged on the bed of the Rajang River in an attempt to locate a car that had plunged off a ferry ramp.

They spent three days scouring the river for the victims’ bodies.

A portable side-scan sonar would have made locating the car or victims quicker.

The pre-dawn January 7 incident at the Tanjung Kunyit ferry crossing killed two of three people in the car – a 61-year-old man and a 40-year-old woman.

A 38-year-old man managed to climb out of the car and swim to safety.

“Modern equipment is needed by most rescue teams. The Batang Kali incident showed that,” Khirudin said in reference to the landslide that occurred in the early hours of December 16 that buried campsites at an organic farm, killing 31 people.

“The need is definitely there.”

While Khirudin is hopeful, he is bracing for another round of disappointment.

The requests, which he said had been acknowledged by “the headquarters”, will now have to go through the red tape.

“We have (forwarded our) proposal but financial (limitations) will always be an obstacle.

“Other agencies might have (the same equipment) but for different usage,” he said in reference to the sniffer dogs, popularly known as the K9 dogs.

Sarawak currently has six dogs – two trained for forensic work, two cadaver and the other two “wilderness”.

Forensic dogs are trained to scent human tissue, blood, semen, urine, faeces and materials that have been handled and worn by humans while cadaver dogs are trained to pick up the scent of human remains.

They are often referred to as human remains detection dogs as they specialise in detecting decomposing flesh.

“Wilderness dogs” are trained to find people lost in the jungle where in Sarawak, there is at least one case a week of people reported lost in the wild.

The dogs Khirudin is requesting are for use in urban SAR, of people trapped under collapsed buildings or a landslide like that in Batang Kali.

He said lawmakers and policymakers need to understand why the department is requesting the equipment and animals.

“Our political leaders and policymakers need a 360-degree turn on this,” he said.

Khirudin said as recent incidents showed, he will now push for them.

If he gets them, Khirudin said he will definitely jump for joy.

“Yes, definitely (especially) the K9. We need more of them, particularly in that one discipline,” he said of the urban SAR dogs. – January 16, 2023.