Bulawayo fire services ill-equipped for disasters

BULAWAYO'S Fire and Emergency Rescue Services department is ill-equipped to deal with a full-scale disaster due to equipment and staff shortages.

Although a recent partnership between the city and the United Kingdom-based Operation Florian voluntary firefighters has resulted in the city being rated the most disaster ready in the country, the city's emergency response unit is yet to recover from challenges caused by old equipment and a staff exodus that occurred during the hyper-inflation era.

The problem is worsened by the fact that Bulawayo is the backbone of Matabeleland's emergency disaster response system as it covers other local authorities in the region, a majority of whom do not have fire brigades or stations.

Speaking during a pass-out parade of 111 firefighters and a ceremonial handover of fire equipment donated by Operation Florian yesterday, the city's chamber secretary, Mrs Sikhangele Zhou, said partnerships with organisations in the country and abroad was the solution to under equipping challenges faced by local authorities countrywide.

She was detailing the city's state of emergency services in the mitigation of disaster responses.

Operation Florian donated two water tenders and fire fighting equipment valued at more than $1 million, bringing to nearly $2 million, the value of donations they have made to the city in the last two years.

The graduating firefighters were drawn from local authorities in Matabeleland and the Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA).

Mrs Zhou said at present the city was operating with eight ambulances, 17 short of the ideal 25, which attended to a total of 2 196 calls last month.

She said Bulawayo had six instead of eight fire tenders, two out of four required water carriers, three instead of five command vehicles one of each instead of three foam tenders, hydraulic platforms and emergency tenders.

Mrs Zhou said the department needed a staff complement of 320 people to operate effectively, but had 203.

"The economic downturn witnessed recently saw council closing down two of its four fire and ambulance stations, namely North End and Nkulumane. The aged fleet of emergency vehicles continued to break down. The situation was further compounded by understaffing. All those challenges manifested themselves in delayed responses to emergencies," said Mrs Zhou.

She said council has been forced to "cannibalise" off-the-run vehicles to get others operational.

Said Mrs Zhou: "Most, if not all the vehicles we are using were acquired in 1992 and constantly break down.

"The coming in of Operation Florian saw us receiving a donation of a water tender and fire and rescue equipment in 2011 all valued at $700 000. It is pleasing to note that Operation Florian have trained and will continue to train fire and ambulance services personnel in areas such a incident management, community and technical fire safety, breathing apparatus, pump operation procedures and first aid, among other training programmes."

Speaking at the same occasion, Bulawayo's Mayor Councillor Thaba Moyo thanked Operation Florian for the donation.

"This will undoubtedly go a long way in improving the responsiveness and efficiency of emergency services in Zimbabwe. I also note that the mission to Bulawayo, which has entered its second phase, has further strengthened and revived our sister city relationship with the City of Aberdeen in Scotland," said Clr Moyo.

In an interview after the event, Operation Florian team leader, Mr Tony Burscough said the donations made Bulawayo the best equipped local authority in the country.

"We are delighted to be part of this exciting partnership with Bulawayo. Although more needs to be done, in terms of equipment, Bulawayo now sets the standard for other local authorities in the country. We look forward to exchanging ideas and working together in Phase Three of the partnership, where we expect to make more donations," said Mr Burscough.