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SCDF is honoured to present Operation Lionheart: Türkiye-Syria Earthquake, as a Rescue995 Special Edition for this month. The digital photobook chronicles the courage and resilience of the SCDF Operation Lionheart Contingent, throughout their deployment in the Türkiye-Syria Earthquake in February 2023. The officers worked hand-in-glove with their international counterparts, overcoming the various challenges to bring hope to the affected people of Türkiye.
SGT2 Nasyaruddin Bin Omarrudin’s journey as a frontliner began during his Full-time National Service (NS), when he was attached to Woodlands Fire Station. He was then serving his NS as an SAF medic. In a twist of fate, he is now back at the same fire station where his story first began, proudly saving lives as an SCDF Paramedic. Rescue995 recently met SGT2 Nasyaruddin at Woodlands Fire Station and saw how he prepared himself for the daily rigours and demands at work.
On 22 March 2023, more than 300 personnel from various agencies, including the SCDF, Singapore Police Force (SPF), Singapore Armed Forces (SAF), JTC Corporation, ExxonMobil, Keppel Infrastructure, Jurong Port Universal Terminal (JPUT), Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA), Ministry of Health (MOH), and Home Team Science and Technology Agency (HTX), took part in Exercise Northstar XI at Jurong Island.
In this concluding segment of our two-part feature on SCDF's Operation Lionheart (OLH) mission in Kahramanmaraş, Türkiye, Rescue995 spoke to Colonel (COL) Chew Keng Tok, Commander of the OLH Contingent, and officers from the Emergency Behavioural Sciences & CARE unit (EBSC), Home Team Specialist (HTS) Ms Khoo Swee Giang, Lead Psychologist, and Lieutenant (LTA) Khoo Chong Wee, Emergency Readiness Officer, who reflected on the contingent’s accomplishments and experiences during the deployment.
The Operation Lionheart (OLH) contingent, comprising 68 members and led by COL Chew Keng Tok, Commander of 2nd SCDF Division, returned to Singapore on 18 February 2023, after a 10-day deployment in Kahramanmaraş, Türkiye. The team was deployed to assist in the rescue efforts, following the Türkiye-Syria earthquake on 6 February 2023. Rescue995 spoke to four members of the OLH contingent, who recounted their experiences on the rescue of a child and a man in Kahramanmaraş province, Türkiye. They are LTA Abdul Rashid Bin Abdul Karim, WO1 Fendilato Bin Mohamad Tahir, WO1 Muhammad Faris Bin Mohammad and SGT3 Tamimi Bin Mohamad Mamsi.
The Civil Defence Academy’s (CDA) enduring philosophy “Train as we Operate” is deeply entrenched in SCDF officers. This is especially so for SCDF’s trainers at the Home Team Tactical Centre (HTTC) where there are various purpose-built training simulators, such as ORCA, a simulator specially designed to provide realistic marine firefighting and rescue simulations and scenarios for trainees.
You would have heard about SCDF’s emergency responders at the frontlines responding to emergencies to protect and save lives and property. But do you know there is a team that is working tirelessly behind the scenes managing resources and providing logistics support for smooth and effective runs of courses at the Civil Defence Academy (CDA)? These unsung heroes are none other than the team of dedicated staff at the Corporate Services Hub (West). We recently met up with Staff Sergeant (SSG) Azmi Bin Abdul Samad, an Operations Logistics Specialist (OLS) and Sergeant 1 (SGT1) (NSF) Muhammad Saufi Bin Hussain, a Senior Info-communications Assistant from Corporate Services Hub West [CSH(W)]. Both SSG Azmi and SGT1 (NSF) Saufi play a pivotal role in providing critical support functions that contributes to the mission success of SCDF.
A quiet Sunday morning on 14 November 2021 was disrupted by a deafening crash. A car had overturned near some bollards outside the Parliament House. Without hesitation, Staff Sergeant (APF) Mohammad Bin Jamaludin, an Auxiliary Police Officer (APO) from Certis CISCO Security Pte Ltd who was on duty at the nearby Supreme Court sprang into action. He was the first to arrive at the scene of the road traffic accident. He noticed that a driver was stuck in his car while a passenger was pinned under it!
On the evening of 12 November 2021, SCDF fire and rescue specialists from Central Fire Station and members of the elite Disaster Assistance and Rescue Team (DART) responded to a height rescue operation at a construction site along Beach Road. A man had injured his leg while working on a 70-metre tower crane and was unable to climb down to safety.
Weaving through heavy traffic on their motorcycles, putting out fires with compressed air-foam backpacks and even restarting a heart, SCDF fire bikers are usually the first to arrive at the scene of an emergency. Thanks to their speedy and efficient fire bikes. The fire bikes were first introduced to combat increasing traffic congestion which delays fire appliances responding to emergencies. This is because response time is a critical factor in preventing the spread of fires. It was not until 2012 that fire bikers began to attend to both fire and medical cases.