SINGAPORE: The number of non-emergency calls to Singapore Civil Defence Force's (SCDF) Emergency Ambulance Service (EAS) rose 40.5 per cent - from 2,131 cases in 2010 to 2,995 cases in 2011.
The data was released in SCDF's annual Fire, Ambulance and Enforcement Statistics.
SCDF's EAS responded to 131,806 calls in 2011, an increase of 5 per cent from 125,603 calls in 2010.
Emergency
calls made up 96 per cent of the total calls responded. The remaining
2.3 per cent were non-emergency calls and another 2.2 per cent were
false alarms.
SCDF says it will step up public education efforts
on the use of its Emergency Ambulance Services through exhibitions,
distribution of posters and leaflets.
For medical cases that are
non-life threatening, SCDF urges the public to call 1777 for the
non-emergency ambulance services run by Private Ambulance Operators
(PAOs).
This, SCDF says, will allow more emergency resources to be channelled towards life threatening cases.
SCDF
says over the next two year, it will be working with the PAOs to
increase their fleet of ambulances as well as to increase their
operating hours based on the projected demands.
The increase
will be carried out gradually and in phases to ensure that the PAOs
continue to meet the service standards expected. Since June 2009, SCDF
has engaged the services of two PAOs to supplement its fleet of
operational ambulances.
SCDF says the overall number of calls
responded to within 11 minutes improved - from 80.9 per cent in 2008 to
84.7 per cent in 2011, with the introduction of private emergency
ambulances.
Other statistics released pertain to fire incidents and fire safety enforcement.
The
number of fire incidents last year was 4,470 fires, a decrease of 3 per
cent from 4,600 fires in 2010. This is the lowest number of fire
incidents recorded in more than a decade.
SCDF says there was a drop in number of fires across all types of premises.
But there are three areas of concern.
The
number of unattended cooking fires accounted for 15 per cent of the
total number of residential fires. The number of fires for this category
went up - from 474 in 2010 to 500 last year.
The number of gas
fires also went up 115 per cent - from 20 cases in 2010 to 43 cases in
2011. Such fires result from the accumulation of LPG gases which may
have leaked from a faulty LPG cylinder, regulator, hose or stove.
The
number of fires involving household contents went up by 79 - from 259
cases for the same period last year. Fires involving furniture,
clothing, mattresses are usually caused by the indiscriminate disposal
of lighted materials such as cigarette butts or children playing with
lighted materials.
The SCDF adds that the number of injuries
arising from fires increased by 22 persons to 165 persons last year.
There were four fatalities due to fire incidents last year. There were
none in 2010.
As for fire safety enforcement, SCDF stepped up its
enforcement checks last year but issued fewer Fire Hazard Abatement
Notices (FHAN) and Notices of Fire Safety Offence (NFSO).
A FHAN
serves as a warning to building owners and management to remove the
hire hazard. 2,632 FHANs were issued in 2011, a drop of 12.8 per cent
compared to 2010.
A NSFO is issued instead of a FHAN when the
contravention is of a serious nature and warrants a heavier penalty.
2,164 NSFOs were issued in 2011, a decrease of 0.9% compared to 2010.
SCDF says the most common fire hazard resulting in FHANs in 2011 was the obstruction to exits and fire engine accessways.
As
for NSFOs, SCDF says the main contributing offence was unauthorised
change of use, for example, of premises to workers' dormitories.
SCDF
says it takes violations of fire safety requirements seriously and will
not hesitate to take firm action against building management that do
not promptly take action to rectify fire safety violations despite
warnings and fines.
Court action will be taken for serious
cases. Last year, 49 charges were filed for court action against fire
safety offenders. 53 per cent of the cases were for unauthorised change
of use.
- CNA/ck