We thank Mr Francis Cheng for his letter (SCDF's resource deployment seems over the top; Sept 28).

The SCDF Operations Centre is manned by officers with firefighting, rescue and emergency medical service expertise.

They assess the severity of 995 calls and deploy the necessary resources.

The two incidents cited by Mr Cheng were complex rescue operations involving a woman's arm trapped in a mixer and a worker trapped in a cable drum of a gantry crane.

Sufficient and appropriate resources were needed to ensure timely and effective rescue.

We do not spare any effort when it comes to the lives and safety of the public.

Smaller, more manoeuvrable vehicles, such as Fire Bikes and Red Rhino, were deployed to reach the incident scenes quickly to render immediate help.

The fire engines were deployed because they are equipped with a suite of rescue equipment which the Fire Bikes and Red Rhino are not able to carry.

The Special Rescue Tender, manned by the elite Disaster Assistance and Rescue Team (Dart), was dispatched as these officers possess the necessary expertise and experience in extricating victims trapped in industrial machinery.

Leslie Williams (Lieutenant-Colonel)

Senior Assistant Director (Public Affairs Department)

Singapore Civil Defence Force