'Blind spot' meant no contact between fire truck, EMRS van

INQUEST | There was no communication between the fire truck and Emergency Medical Rescue Services (EMRS) van deployed from Subang Jaya Fire Station to put out a burning car near the Seafield Sri Mahamariamman Temple, where a riot broke out on November 27 last year.

The team's supervisor, Badrul Hisyam Salim, told the Coroner's Court in Shah Alam today that he encountered a "blind spot" when the fire truck stopped about 30m from the burning car, which disrupted the signal between the vehicles' communication devices.

Badrul is the fifth witness in the inquest to determine firefighter Muhammad Adib Mohd Kassim's cause of death.

As officer in charge of the operations, he said his role included immediately communicating with the main operations centre upon arrival and to determine the next course of action for his team.

"But at the same time, our communication devices encountered a blind spot," said Badrul, whose team in the fire truck that night comprised five firefighters and a driver, Md Eliza Mohd Noor, who had been the inquest's second witness.

Adib had been in the front passenger seat of the EMRS van, alongside driver Ahmad Shahril Othman, the inquest's third witness.

Due to the loss of signal, Badrul said his instruction for all personnel to remain in their vehicles was not communicated to Adib (photo) and Shahril.

"A group of civilians surged towards our fire truck in a suspicious manner and shouted 'Bomba balik! Jangan padam!' (Firefighters go back! Don’t extinguish (the fire)!).

"I issued an instruction for my team to not get down from the vehicle," he said in response to questions from inquest co-ordinating officer Hamdan Hamzah.

Badrul also said two of his team members were "excited" and jumped out of the fire truck towards the back, where the hose reels were kept, before he could issue any instructions amid the chaos.

Subsequently, he said one of them managed to get back in the truck, while the other, previously identified in the inquest as Mohd Hazim Mohd Rahimi, 31, did not.

In their testimonies, Eliza and Shahril had both described a scene of chaos when a mob of about 50 people had surged towards them from the temple and attacked the two vehicles using long poles, helmets, and other heavy objects.

'Everything happened too fast'

"At that moment I really felt threatened because the windscreen on my side was shattered.

"I kept looking back because I was afraid that I would be injured," Badrul said, adding that the whole situation had left him traumatised.

To further questions from lawyer Shazlin Mansor, Badrul said he had no opportunity to communicate with Shahril or Adib using his mobile phone as everything happened "too fast".

"I have to protect myself... I didn't even know where my handphone was anymore," he said.

The two vehicles were on the scene for less than 20 minutes before they escaped and headed towards the closest police station at USJ8.

Badrul said he conducted a roll call at the station and confirmed that Adib was missing, while Hazim had returned in the EMRS van.

After multiple attempts to contact the missing firefighter on his mobile phone, Badrul said a civilian had picked up Adib’s phone at around 1.34am and informed one of his team members that Adib was on the way to the hospital.

Report based on assumption

Badrul said he then instructed his entire team to head to Ramsay Sime Darby Subang Jaya Medical Centre, where Adib was taken, and he then left with Shahril to lodge a police report at Subang Jaya police station in SS17.

In his testimony today, Badrul confirmed Shahril's statement that the police report was based on the latter’s assumption that Adib had sustained serious injuries after being "dragged and beaten" by the crowd.

"But after the report was printed out, I asked the police officer who took our report if it could be amended because neither of us saw Adib being dragged and beaten up, and he said 'yes...'," he said.

Badrul, however, did not proceed to amend the report, and when quizzed on his reasons, said that he was traumatised and unsure of what to do.

Adib was later transferred to the National Heart Institute (IJN) for further treatment. He died on Dec 17 at 9.41pm. - Mkini