Kelantan JBPM ramps up inspections of homestays and budget hotels to enforce fire safety compliance across the state.
TUMPAT: The Kelantan Fire and Rescue Department (JBPM) will step up inspections of homestays, budget hotels and guesthouses across the state this year to ensure all such premises comply with fire safety requirements.
Its director Farhan Sufyan Borhan said the focus would be on premises operating as homestays, as many are believed to be unregistered, making fire safety monitoring more difficult.
“We will study information from various online booking platforms such as Booking.com and Agoda to identify premises operating as homestays and ensure they comply with fire safety requirements.
“So far, there have been no fires involving homestay guests in the state. However, JBPM is taking proactive measures by warning owners to meet fire safety requirements before any incident occurs,” he told reporters at the Fire Safety Campaign and Community Fire Point programme in Pulau Teluk Renjuna today.
He said homestay owners should, at a minimum, provide fire extinguishers and display instructions on their proper use so that guests can respond immediately in the event of a fire.
He said providing fire extinguishers is a basic requirement that can help contain a fire in its early stages before firefighters arrive.
On enforcement, he said JBPM would conduct field inspections to identify premises operating as homestays, but acknowledged that some owners had been uncooperative.
“In fact, the registration of homestays is not under the Fire Department’s jurisdiction. Our responsibility is to ensure that premises converted from residential homes into homestays comply with fire safety requirements,” he said.
He said JBPM would first provide advice to owners before issuing a fire hazard abatement notice (MBK) if the premises were found to have failed to meet the required standards.
Meanwhile, he said Kelantan JBPM had achieved 130 per cent of its inspection target for budget hotels and homestays, but inspection efforts would continue to be intensified due to the growing number of accommodation premises in the state.
In a separate development, he said Kelantan JBPM had received 2,190 fire-related emergency calls from January to date, with the highest numbers recorded in March and April.
He added that this was the second-highest number of fire calls in Malaysia after Kedah, and he hoped the number of fire incidents in the state could be reduced over the remainder of the year.
