Syarikat Mengurus Air Banjir & Terowong (SMART) together with Jabatan Bomba & Penyelamat, Polis and Hospital Kuala Lumpur conducted another fire drill in the SMART motorway tunnel on 7 October as part of its on-going safety programs.

The drill was participated by more then 60 personnel from the various agencies involved. These include Jabatan Bomba and Penyelamat personnel from Pudu, KL, Tun Razak and Sentul stations as well as the Traffic Police from Jalan Bandar station and Hospital Kuala Lumpur.

This will be the first appearance of Jabatan Bomba’s First Responder Vehicles which were handed over to the Jabatan Bomba and Penyelamat by SMART in August 2007. The custom-built vehicles are specially designed for accessibility into the SMART tunnel and are specifically equipped to handle fire and rescue emergencies in the double-deck SMART motorway and flood tunnel

An accident and fire scenario was created for the drill exercise. 3 cars were involved in an accident on the upper deck of the motorway tunnel at km 0.1. There were 5 victims with 3 being seriously injured in the middle car. Due to the severity of the accident, one of the vehicles caught fire.

The rescue operation comprising Jabatan Bomba and  the SMART Ronda Team went through the exercise with precision. The injured were sent to Hospital Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (HUKM) by Jabatan Bomba EMS (Emergency Medical Service) Unit and the ambulance. The fire was successfully put out by Jabatan Bomba personel.

In a press conference after the drill, Jabatan Bomba Kuala Lumpur Director, Mohammad Hamdan Wahid said, “Drill exercises are important as these not only train and prepare SMART operations personnel for such eventualities but also for Jabatan Bomba  to improve and refine their procedure, technique and method in handling any incident in a tunnel environment. Such training will also develop better understanding and interaction among all the relevant agencies to ensure that we manage effectively during an actual emergency or crisis.

The drill is part of a continuing safety campaign programme by Syarikat Mengurus Air  Banjir & Terowong (SMART) to educate and create awareness to the public. Part of the programme that has been implemented are the distribution of safety flyers and user guides on the safety procedures inside the tunnel during an emergency.