SINGAPORE – A review of past fire incidents has found that there were occasional individual lapses in the way Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) officers carried out their duties.
These mainly related to the lack of proper use of personal protective equipment (PPE), such as not wearing the PPE properly, or not using breathing apparatus sets during damping-down operations, said SCDF in a statement on Saturday.
Damping down refers to the application of water to wet burnt surfaces immediately after a fire is put out.
As a result, SCDF has since Sept 18 required the establishment of a control point overseen by a breathing apparatus control officer for all residential fires. This was previously done only for fire incidents that were deemed major or complex.
“The purpose of this control point is to assist the ground commander in tracking the deployment of firefighters, as well as to ensure operational safety, such as the adequate use and proper donning of PPE before they enter the fire scene,” said SCDF.
It added that a key task of the officer is to monitor the amount of air remaining in the individuals’ breathing apparatus sets, as well as to plan for their replacement if the operation is ongoing.
The review comes after a residential fire on Dec 8, 2022, claimed the life of a full-time national serviceman (NSF).
Sergeant 1 Edward H. Go suffocated and died after he was allegedly left alone to fight the fire in a fourth-floor rental unit at Block 91 Henderson Road.
The 19-year-old is the first firefighter to have died during an SCDF firefighting operation. An autopsy certified that Sgt 1 Go died of suffocation due to a depleted air cylinder.
Following the incident, SCDF convened an internal review group to examine how the operation was conducted.
The group comprised senior SCDF officers and specialists with “many years of operational and training experience”.
Assistant Commissioner Francis Ng, director of the training and professional development department at SCDF, led the review, which covered many aspects such as firefighting procedures, operational safety, and equipping and training.
