19th November 2012 London, UK
British High Commission Fire Training "Away Day"
Safety is a key component of the Brunei Brand: “Abode of Peace”. For Brunei Shell, it’s a yardstick against which the whole operation is measured; because, they tell me, managers with a strong safety record tend to get the rest of the job right too.
The High Commission also prizes safety. For us, the challenge is to stay safety-conscious in a situation where our hosts take such good care of us. How to avoid complacency? And how to get all the fringe-benefits which come while working at Health and Safety? Such as high morale; and a team which watches out for one another.
If we needed a wake-up call, the Bandar Fire Brigade were just the people to sound the alarm. So we spent a morning with the Balai Bomba. The film below depicts the “short sharp shock” administered by Instructress Andy and her colleagues.
I can still hear her voice: “Think fast! What are you going to do?” I can now, I hope, grab the right kind of fire extinguisher (Water, Foam, Carbon Dioxide or Dry Chemical Powder) to suit each blaze.
Of course, we hope our homes and workplace in the Yayasan Complex will never catch fire. Fire prevention and other security disciplines are important to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, wherever we find ourselves in the world.
But it’s a comfort to discover that the Royal Brunei Fire Department upholds the same high standards; adapted to this particular terrain. Check out the references to bees, wild boar and snake-catching.