Scdf Personnel
Giuliana
As a former SCDF NSF, I am proud to see how MHA and SCDF have handled the situation. They were not only transparent with the facts, but were also quick to announce the arrests of the 2 regular officers. They even held a media interview to clarify certain things to the media.
The incident itself should not have happened. Ragging has been banned by SCDF for many years now and very strict disciplinary actions have been taken against the culprits. From my experience in the fire station, the SCDF has always stood by its zero tolerance policy for ragging. But, there are always people who break the rules or get too carried away. This incident is an accurate example of that.
To those ORD-ed personnel, just like me, who spoke to the newspapers about their time in the fire stations and the ragging they witnessed, think back at what you did. The fact that you chose to stay silent and witness someone get bullied, only to tell the story 5 years later, does not prove that you are being a hero or vigilante. You chose to keep quiet then, so you are as good as those wrongdoers.
We cannot determine how the Force is today by taking into account only what happened 5 to 10 years back. For a recently ORD-ed personnel, I believe that SCDF has changed in many ways since then. This covers everything from their equipment to culture.
The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) is a uniformed organisation in Singapore under the Ministry of Home Affairs that provides emergency services such as firefighting, technical rescue, and emergency medical services, and coordinates national civil defence programme.[1]
Singapore's first Fire Committee was formed in 1855. Prior to this, fires were attended to by uniformed groups which included the police, sepoys, marine soldiers and even convicts. On 7 September 1869, the Governor Major-General Sir Harry St. George Ord enacted the Fire Ordinance and appointed the Colonial Engineer as Chairman of the Fire Commission for Singapore. This Fire Commission was however later disbanded in 1884 due to poor organisation and difficult circumstances. In 1888, the Singapore Fire Brigade was established as a fully-equipped professional brigade with sufficient funding. By 1909, there were a total of three built stations servicing Singapore, namely Central Fire Station at Hill Street, Cross Street and Kallang Fire Stations. In 1980, the brigade was officially renamed the Singapore Fire Service (SFS).[2]
In 1970, on the basis of elements of the SPF's Vigilante Corps, raised in the early 1960s, the Police Civil Defence Force was created under the purview of the Singapore Police Force. In 1982, the National Civil Defence Plan was launched which spearheaded the emergency preparedness for the nation at large and as a consequence of this plan majority of the SPF-VC's serving personnel joined the SPF-PCDF, which the plan designated as the nation's primary organization for civil defence and disaster response. With the enactment of the Civil Defence Act in 1986, the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF), by now separate from the SPF proper, was established as an organisation under the Ministry of Home Affairs. In the same year, the Hotel New World disaster paved the way for joint operations between the SCDF and SFS. The SCDF and SFS were merged on 15 April 1989 into one organization.[3]
The newly integrated SCDF mainly used facilities which were handed over from the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) or the Singapore Police Force (SPF). Since the early 2000s, its headquarters and territorial divisions have all moved into purpose-built facilities. SCDF's involvement in regional disaster relief operations has also raised its profile significantly.
SCDF is led by the Commissioner of the SCDF and three deputy commissioners, each in charge of Strategy & Corporate Services, Operations & Resilience and Future Technology & Public Safety. The SCDF is organised with one headquarter element commanding seven divisions. Of the latter, four (1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Divisions) are territorial divisions; another two are training divisions, namely the Civil Defence Academy (CDA) and National Service Training Centre (NSTC) and can be activated as the 5th and 6th Divisions respectively in times of emergency; the eighth is the Marine Division, which was set up on 1 April 2012 with the capability and capacity to respond to marine fire and rescue incidents.
Each territorial division has a boundary of responsibility within Singapore, and possesses its own command centre and hazmat capabilities. Administrative and logistical support is split between Corporate Service Hub East and Corporate Service Hub West.
The National Service Training Centre (NSTC) conducts training for national servicemen. It consists of the Basic Rescue Training Branch (BRTB), which conducts basic training for new enlistees in basic rescue skills and fitness, and the In-Camp Training Branch (ICTB), which trains Operationally Ready NSmen. Tucked in a corner of NSTC is the Civil Defence Detention Barracks under the purview of the SCDF Provost Unit. Detainees from both SCDF and SPF are detained here throughout the duration of their detention. Subunits of the Provost Unit are also housed here.
The SCDF maintains a large fleet of custom-made vehicles (referred to as appliances) that are capable of mitigating a variety of incidents. Many of the appliances were designed and commissioned by the SCDF rather than ready-made designs.
The ambulance forms the backbone of Singapore's medical emergency response capability and is the most widely deployed appliance. Ambulances are often referred to by their callsign, "Alpha." Each ambulance is staffed by up to 3 emergency medical technicians, one serves as a driver, and 1 paramedic. Medic trainees from the Singapore Armed Forces are also sent for attachment with these Ambulances. The latest 7th Generation ambulances comes with a self-decontamination system which is capable of decontaminating the ambulance when needed.
The Medical Support Vehicle (MSV) is a truck that is designed to provide on-site treatment capabilities for mass casualty incidents. On reaching the incident site, it is able to fold out and expand to form a mobile aid station to perform on-site stabilization and critical invasive medical treatment. When fully deployed, it is capable of treating a large number of patients simultaneously on an operating table that slides under its "wings". In addition, MSVs are loaded with a larger inventory of medical equipment so as to manage mass-casualty incidents.
The Fire Bike, also known as the Red Scorpion, is a three-wheeled Piaggio MP3 that carries a single firefighter. They are able to navigate traffic to provide a faster initial response to emergencies. The Fire Bike carries a compressed air foam backpack which can extinguish handle smaller conflagrations such as household and vehicle fires. It is also equipped with an automated external defibrillator to respond to medical emergencies in concert with an ambulance.
The Light Fire Attack Vehicle (LFAV), also known as the Red Rhino, was first introduced in 2000. It is designed to be more compact than a traditional fire engine, allowing it to be stationed at a larger variety of locations.
The most recent iteration is the 6th generation, unveiled in 2022 at the SCDF Workplan Seminar. Instead of the traditional 4-man crew in the previous LFAV generations, the 6th generation carries a robot named the Red Rhino Robot (3R) which fits in the rear passenger compartment. The 3R conducts reconnaissance operations to locate the seat of fire through the use of thermal imaging and relay the information to the operator, who can then direct firefighting operations. The robot is able to mitigate a fire within confines of approximately 15m2.[7][8]
The Pump Ladder (PL) is the workhorse fire engine of the SCDF. It carries 2,400 litres of water and 1,200 litres of foam, along with other rescue and firefighting equipment. The PL is also equipped to set up hasty decontamination facilities for a chemical incident. The decontamination lanes can be set up within four minutes, and each lane is able to decontaminate up to 36 walking casualties or six lying casualties per hour. The Generation E of the PL features a compress air foam pump.
The Combined Platform-Ladder (CPL) is a hydraulic ladder-platform truck which is used to conduct external firefighting and rescue operations involving high-rise buildings. There are several variants of CPL in SCDF, the largest being the CPL60 which can extend its platform ladder up to a maximum height of 60 metres, the equivalent of a 20-storey building. Its platform is equipped with a water monitor capable of discharging water at the rate of 3,800 litres per minute, and a rescue cage that can hold up to 500 kg. [9]
The Fire and Rescue Operations Support Tender (FROST) is a support appliance that provides additional sets of self-contained breathing apparatus, thermal imaging cameras, gas detectors and smoke and water extraction functions to facilitate difficult or prolonged rescue operations.
It was designed to consolidate the functions of the previous Breathing Apparatus Tender (BAT) and Damage Control Tender (DCT), halving the total manpower needed for these functions from eight to four.
The Tracked Firefighting Vehicle (TFV) is a Bandvagn 206 that is used in forested areas where wheeled vehicles may have difficulty navigating. These vehicles were transferred from the Singapore Armed Forces to the SCDF and subsequently repainted and fitted with firefighting equipment and capabilities.
The Modular Oil Tank Fire-Fighting System (MOTFS) is an oil tank fire fighting system capable of discharging large volumes of foam for large-scale fires, up to 100,000 litres per minute. It is also capable of drafting water supply directly from open sources such as the sea or marine vessels. It is also designed in a modular form to speed up deployment to match the scale of the incident.[9]
The Unmanned Firefighting Machine (UFM) is a remote controlled fire-fighting unit built to operate in extreme heat and hazardous environments, by using high velocity airflow to create ventilation in smoke-logged areas, and intense water mist, jet or foam to put out fires. It was first launched in April 2014. In 2015, the UFM added a rail kit to enable the unit to manoeuvre in Mass Rapid Transit tunnels at up to 40 km/h to put out fires and conduct ventilation operations.[10]
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