KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 9 — The Royal Institution of Surveyors Malaysia (RISM) has offered to assist the authorities in checking potential safety hazards in buildings like tahfiz schools following a fatal fire at one last month.

Mohd Amin Mohd Din, the vice-president of RISM, noted that Building Condition Assessment is the surveyors’ core responsibility to the construction industry.

"We’re ever willing and would like very much to react and are ready to spearhead our members to reciprocate on his call,” the chairman of RISM’s building surveying division told Malay Mail Online yesterday.

He was responding to Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi’s call for surveyors to reassess the conditions of buildings in Malaysia.

"However, there should be a coordinated committee from various other agencies too, such as Fire Brigade, JAKIM, KPKT etc. We won’t want ‘too many cooks that may spoil the soup (sic)’,” he added, referring to the Department of Islamic Development Malaysia and Ministry of Urban Wellbeing, Housing and Local Government by their Malay initials.

Zahid was reported by national news agency Bernama yesterday as saying that he wanted both RISM and the Malaysian Association of Registered Building Surveyors to take the initiative to re-evaluate the physical condition of all buildings nationwide to prevent fires from breaking out.

Zahid said the re-inspection was crucial following the September 14 pre-dawn fire that killed 21 students and two teachers at the Darul Quran Ittifaqiyah Centre in the national capital.

Zahid said a special government task force which he leads had met and reviewed matters that can be immediately improved on, including measures to ensure that building standards for all tahfiz and pondok schools, kindergartens, child care centres, as well as for orphans and senior citizens are complied with.