Services ink deal to boost staff life-saving skills

THE Papua New Guinea Fire Service and the St Johns Ambulance will work together to improve their services in order to save lives.
Chief Fire Officer Bill Roo said although they had been working side by side over the years, the signing of a memorandum of understanding yesterday formalised the cooperation.
“We can now officially work together and also help each other in terms of skills upgrading that will help us to improve our services and save lives,” he said.
Roo said it was also part of the preparations for next year’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit.
St Johns Ambulance chief executive officer Mollen Molki said they were happy to work in partnership with the Fire Service.
“My officers can teach the fire officers the basics of first-aid care and fire officers can teach my officers basic fire emergency responses,” he said.
“So when there is a fire emergency and the fire service gets there before us, they (firemen) can provide basic first-aid care when needed.
“And if the ambulance service gets there first, they can carry out the basic fire emergency responses.”
Molki said the two emergency services would become more efficient.
The signing was witnessed by the Australian police and defence force which are members of the Joint Task Force for Apec.