Fire tender used to chase kombis

The Marondera Municipality is using a fire tender donated by Japan recently to chase after road traffic offenders in the town.

Armed with wheel clamps and spikes, the vehicle is seen "playing cat and mouse chases with kombis" in the town's central business district, much to the dismay of residents.

The residents complained that the vehicle was being misused at a time when property and lives were at risk because of fire outbreaks.

Property worth thousands of dollars was lost recently when a building that housed a clothing shop, Power Sales, caught fire.

The town's fire tenders reportedly arrived at the scene without water.

Town Clerk Mr Josiah Musuwo claimed the donated Japanese fire tender was incompatible with local conditions, hence the decision to attach it to the town's security department.

He said the town's other fire tender was a 22-year-old engine that constantly had breakdowns, while its pipes were leaking.

"That vehicle (Japanese) is no longer a fire tender, although it used to be but it was decommissioned," he said.

"In Japan, every building has a fire hydrant such that in the event of a fire, the fire tender connects pipes to the fire hydrant, but that is not the case here. For a time we considered options on what to do with the fire tenders, including putting fire hydrants but that would be costly. We ended up using it for banking and now for our security department," he explained.

He said small local authorities were unable to buy fire tenders on their own.

Previously, the Ministry of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing would bulk-buy fire tenders for local authorities.

However, due to economic challenges affecting the country, they have since stopped.