But we can afford to go to war but not equip our fundermentals
Friday, July 11th 2014 The peril of fire outbreaks is a constant threat to Nairobians, who know very well just what it means to lose loved ones and property in an inferno.
The calamity of such loses and the resultant pain and grief are not things you easily forget. The loss of life, disfigurement of survivors, psychological scarring and millions of shillings that have gone up in smoke, have shattered the dreams of many and tested the willpower of even the most resolute.
Chocking inefficiency
Yet, the Nairobi City County, which is supposed to protect city residents from such disasters always finds itself choking in inefficiency, unpreparedness, lack of capacity and insufficient equipment, amidst a bone yard of derelict and out of service, broken down engines.
This is easily confirmed by a random check at the Central Fire Station that lays bare the sorry state of fire engines that have been grounded for years.
“As a department, we have many engines, each specialised to handle emergencies like fires, explosions and road accidents,” Jacton Mboya, the Assistant Director, Fire and Rescue Services at NCC told The Nairobian.
“At the moment, there are two vehicles for firefighting, one for road accidents and the other for emergencies in high rise buildings,” said Mboya.
Mboya says NCC has many engines, but most are grounded due to mechanical problems. One fire engine donated by the US government following the August 7, 1998 bombing has been grounded for the last three years due to unavailability of parts locally.
The NCC 2014/2015 budget has allocated Sh100 million for three fire engines and Sh20 million for the construction of two fire stations.
“We made these recommendations to the Budget Committee as a department. We are glad some of our requests were granted,” Mboya says.
“These new engines will be essential, since we respond to distress calls from as far as Thika and Mavoko towns.”
It seems the equipment is not the only problem facing the firefighting department. According to Mboya, there are only 154 firefighters currently in the country. This is way below the optimum number of required firefighters, which he says should not be less than 500.
According to the now defunct Parliamentary Local Authority Committee, there were only 30 active fire engines in the entire country in 2012.
Mboya says new fire stations should be distributed throughout the county to decentralise the department’s services. He calls for stations in areas such as Kasarani, Embakasi and other far-flung locations to reduce response time. At the moment, even though the city claims to have three fire stations, only the central station has a fire engine. The other two stations are in Industrial Area and Ruaraka.
“If you look at the distribution of these stations and rate and manner at which the city is expanding, you realise that three engines cannot adequately service 3 million residents,” the senior fireman says.
“The main station was built in 1907 and the one in Industrial Area in 1956. No other station has been built since, despite hundreds of buildings coming up and the city’s population growing to around five million.”
The Ruaraka fire station is a partnership between East African Breweries (EABL) and the NCC. EABL provides the premises, while NCC is supposed to equip the station.
“Whenever there is an emergency, say in Dandora or Kayole, it takes quite some time for the fire engines to maneuver through traffic,” Mboya says.
“Some motorists have also been known to be unwilling to give way to fire engines responding to an emergency, even though this is an offence. Imagine the amount of time, property and lives that could be saved if we had fully-equipped stations in those areas,” wonders Mboya.
With 60 per cent of the city’s population living in informal settlements, Mboya says that slums pose an even greater challenge for firefighters.
Water hydrants
“A fire engine might promptly respond to an emergency, but then fails to access the fire due to congestion and lack of access roads, which are characteristic of these areas. In situations where our engines can’t access the fire in slums, we ask residents to destroy structures around the fire to curtail its spread,” he says.
Water hydrants do not exist in slums either and the few that you may find are always dry. The fire engines are therefore always forced to exit the emergency areas to refill elsewhere, which is slow and inefficient. In addition, the firefighters rarely receive warm reception in the slums:
“Whenever we respond to emergencies, and sometimes we arrive late because information doesn’t reach us in good time, or because we can’t easily access the areas; the residents may turn against us, pelting us with stones and threatening to lynch us. Others destroy our water hoses and opt to instead tackle the fire own their own, saying we are slow, and oblivious to important factors like wind, which have to be considered when fighting a fire.”
NCC has embarked on a programme to train slum dwellers on fire response and basic firefighting skills. The county also provides pumps, hoses and tanks. The objective is make the residents the first line of defense against fires and contain their spread before the arrival of the firefighting brigade.
According to Mboya, fire fighters from the county are trained at their school in Industrial Area which also doubles as a fire station.
“The centre does not have state of the art equipment, but has all the basic firefighting gear like engines,” explains Mboya. “Senior staff are taken abroad for further training. I went to Israel while my boss went to Japan,” he adds.
“If you look at the distribution of these stations and rate and manner at which the city is expanding, you realise that three engines cannot adequately service 3 million residents,” the senior fireman says.
“The main station was built in 1907 and the one in Industrial Area in 1956. No other station has been built since, despite hundreds of buildings coming up and the city’s population growing to around five million.”
The Ruaraka fire station is a partnership between East African Breweries (EABL) and the NCC. EABL provides the premises, while NCC is supposed to equip the station.
“Whenever there is an emergency, say in Dandora or Kayole, it takes quite some time for the fire engines to maneuver through traffic,” Mboya says.
“Some motorists have also been known to be unwilling to give way to fire engines responding to an emergency, even though this is an offence. Imagine the amount of time, property and lives that could be saved if we had fully-equipped stations in those areas,” wonders Mboya.
With 60 per cent of the city’s population living in informal settlements, Mboya says that slums pose an even greater challenge for firefighters.
Water hydrants
“A fire engine might promptly respond to an emergency, but then fails to access the fire due to congestion and lack of access roads, which are characteristic of these areas. In situations where our engines can’t access the fire in slums, we ask residents to destroy structures around the fire to curtail its spread,” he says.
Water hydrants do not exist in slums either and the few that you may find are always dry. The fire engines are therefore always forced to exit the emergency areas to refill elsewhere, which is slow and inefficient. In addition, the firefighters rarely receive warm reception in the slums:
“Whenever we respond to emergencies, and sometimes we arrive late because information doesn’t reach us in good time, or because we can’t easily access the areas; the residents may turn against us, pelting us with stones and threatening to lynch us. Others destroy our water hoses and opt to instead tackle the fire own their own, saying we are slow, and oblivious to important factors like wind, which have to be considered when fighting a fire.”
NCC has embarked on a programme to train slum dwellers on fire response and basic firefighting skills. The county also provides pumps, hoses and tanks. The objective is make the residents the first line of defense against fires and contain their spread before the arrival of the firefighting brigade.
According to Mboya, fire fighters from the county are trained at their school in Industrial Area which also doubles as a fire station.
“The centre does not have state of the art equipment, but has all the basic firefighting gear like engines,” explains Mboya. “Senior staff are taken abroad for further training. I went to Israel while my boss went to Japan,” he adds.
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