KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s Fire and Rescue Department personnel have responded to more than their fair share of bizarre emergency calls, but a recent incident in Petaling Jaya takes the cake.
The Damansara Fire and Rescue Department received a call on Sept 4 from a distraught woman pleading for help to remove a “huge monitor lizard” from her condominium unit at Jalan Tropicana Utara, Petaling Jaya. (How on earth does a monitor lizard end up in a condo?)
The woman was so terrified by the giant reptile, she apparently made the call from her neighbour’s house.
Not ones to bide their time, the department deployed several personnel in a fire engine to the stated address.
Upon reaching the woman’s home, however, the firefighters – who were braced for a struggle with a large, wild animal – were pointed to a gecko, or “cicak.”
It was no larger than an adult’s thumb.
A report of the incident on the Info Roadblock JPJ Facebook page – accompanied by a picture of an amused fireman holding the “monster” between his gloved fingers – has gone viral and netizens were unanimous in chiding the woman for wasting the firefighters’ time.