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MAJOR (MAJ) Abdul Razak Senin and Senior Warrant Officer (SWO1) Irianto Bin Marino can never forget their first overseas operation as rescuers from the newly formed Disaster Assistance and Rescue Team (DART) twenty-seven years ago. It was also the year when they had just graduated from the 1st DART Conversion Course. Five months after the conversion course, on 11 December 1993, a huge mudslide brought on by the heavy December rains triggered the collapse of a 12-storey building on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Within hours, DART rescuers were activated to assist in the rescue mission at Highland Towers in Kuala Lumpur.
Meet COLONEL (COL) Chew Keng Tok who has spent over 16 years as a member of the elite Disaster Assistance and Rescue Team (DART) in the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF). COL Chew had graduated from the 10th DART Specialist Course in 2003. He joined the elite unit as a Platoon Commander from 2003 to 2006, and later led the unit as the DART Commander for close to five years since 2015. On 26 October 2020, COL Chew was one of the eight DART members who received a medallion each for their immense contributions to the unit over the years. Today, he is the Commander of 2nd SCDF Division.
Meet CPT Saifulbahri Bin Mohd Idris, a training management officer at SCDF 1st Division HQ and one of the recipients of the Home Team Sports and Recreation Association (HTSRA) Merit Award 2020. This award acknowledges CPT Saifulbahri’s outstanding contribution as a Sports Convenor of SCDF’s Sepak Takraw. Under CPT Saifulbahri’s guidance, SCDF’s Sepak Takraw team emerged as champions and runners-up for several tournaments in 2019 and in the early part of 2020 before the start of Covid-19 Circuit Breaker.
In a previous e-article of Rescue 995, SWO (RET) Mohd Salleh Bin Ali, affectionately and commonly known as Encik Agayle, walked us down the memory lane of his life as a firefighter and trainer in the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) for the past 45 years. In this second and final part article, Encik Agayle recalled some of the major incidents which he had responded to during the early days of his career.
LTA (NS) Tran Ngoc Long Gary was elated when he was awarded the NSF of the Year 2020. The 23-year old Rota Commander at Central Fire Station has led his rota in many rescue and fire emergencies. One notable incident includes a Suicide Rescue Incident resulting in no casualty at Havelock Road.
Meet SWO (RET) Md Salleh Bin Ali who has spent over 40 years of his life as a fireman and trainer in the Singapore Civil Defence Force. At 62 years of age, he is a member of the Merdeka Generation – Singaporeans born in the 1950s – honoured for their contributions to nation building.
MAJ (NS) Rozaiman Rosidi, 37 years of age, started his National Service in 2005 in the Singapore Armed Forces before he was posted to the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF). In SCDF, MAJ (NS) Rozaiman completed a 9-month Basic Officers’ Course (BOC), and was subsequently posted to the Special Rescue Battalion (SRB) as a Platoon Commander.
Meet CPT Pek Hong Kun, SCDF Marine Division’s first female Officer-On-Watch (OOW). On 2 September, she led her team of Marine Specialists in a complex rescue operation involving a man who had fallen within an offshore vessel located about 10km Southwest of Singapore. CPT Pek was posted to Marine Division in 2018. Like all SCDF career officers at Marine Division, she learned the fundamentals of operating and maintaining firefighting and rescue vessels. In addition, CPT Pek had to gain maritime experience navigating the vessels by accumulating at least nine months of being out at sea. She was later selected to be an OOW.
From 12 to 14 June 2020, 370 teams comprising 1244 students from junior colleges, polytechnics and universities participated in “SCDF X IBM Lifesavers’ Innovation Challenge: Call For Code 2020”, a 48-hour virtual hackathon jointly organised by SCDF and IBM. In July this year, the result of the hackathon was announced and a team of 5 students from the Singapore Management University (SMU) emerged as the champion, winning a cash prize of S$10,000 and USD$120,000 IBM cloud credits.
The Queenstown HeartSavers Connect, together with SCDF firefighters and police officers, evacuated about 60 residents from the 7th to the 16th floor when a fire broke out in a kitchen of a HDB unit at Lengkok Bahru on the evening of 16 April 2020. No one was injured.