TAPAH, June 24 — Hari Raya Aidilfitri is a time to celebrate but it should not be a time to forget fire safety precautions.

That is the message from Fire and Rescue Department director-general Datuk Wan Mohd Nor Ibrahim, who urged the people to be cautious during the festive season.

"During festive periods, the public have to pay serious attention to the aspect of fire safety,” he told reporters after inspecting the Fire and Rescue Department command and control centre at the Tapah highway toll plaza yesterday.

The department has set up 19 command and control centres along two major highways to reduce response time for road accidents.

Wan Mohd Nor said each centre is manned by 12 personnel on 24-hour shifts.

"These centres will allow us to save about five minutes of response time, compared to if they were responding from the respective fire stations. We aim to reach the scene under 10 minutes,” he said.

"Quicker response times will prevent traffic congestion from building up along the highway.  "We have set up 14 centres along the North-South Expressway and five along the East Coast Highway.”

Only 2,600 out of the nation’s 13,000 firefighters have been allowed to take leave for this year’s Ops Raya, which is from June 18 to July 2.

Wan Mohd Nor said the department received 2,400 fire-related calls during its two-week Ops Raya last year, an increase from the 2015 figure of 1,836.

He said letting off fireworks during the festive season is also a contributing factor towards the increasing number of fires.

However,  road accidents distress calls during Ops Raya had gone down over the past two years. Firefighters received 129 accident-related emergency calls throughout last year’s Ops Raya, compared with 227 in 2015.