Gwanda fire services proven inefficient as house burns

The Municipality of Gwanda Fire Services department was on Saturday proven to be extremely inefficient yet again.

House number 492 Marriage Quarters of Jahunda Township went on fire shortly after the Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company (ZETDC) restored electricity after a 6 hour load shedding period. According to the only occupant in the house at the time of the fire, the blaze was as a result of an electric stove that was left on by people renting another room when power went off and came on as soon as power was restored setting alight plastic utensils that were next to the stove.

The Municipal fire brigade arrived at the scene of the fire about 30 mins after the call was made. On arrival at the scene not only did the fire tender have no water with it but had out an of sort crew according to witnesses. Neighbours and passerby had to take over the role of the "fireman" and fought the fire using hose pipes and sand from neighbouring houses to extinguish the fire, but considerable damage had already been done.

This is not the first time that the Municipality of Gwanda Fire Department has rushed to a fire scene and failed to extinguish the blaze as they always either arrive at the scene without adequate water supply or with no water at all.

Memories can never die from the people of Gwanda when in 2010 the Municipal Fire Department failed to extinguish a flame when a haulage truck and a pick up truck crashed head on burning all occupants in the van beyond recognition while the fire crew watched even the huge truck burn to a shell. Early this year a Zeblon luxury coach also burnt to a shell while the crew watched helplessly. Few weeks ago a Toyota Quantum also burnt to a shell with the crew again watching.

Several houses in Gwanda Town have also been burnt helplessly to nothing with the fire crew doing nothing. Of specific memory in recent days are the fires that burnt down houses belonging to Gwanda businessmen Kudakwache Jacha and Yenzani Dube on two separate occasions while the fire crew battled out of sorts to put out the flames.

A resident interviewed at the scene of the fire was not kind to council describing their fire services crew as "just as good as non existent."

"This vehicle is not a fire tender but a public address vehicle that council uses to call people to attend councillors' meetings. The fire department in Gwanda is as good as non existent but just a bunch of people paid for nothing," said the angry resident.

Asked what the problem really is within the fire department, a "fireman" who was part of the crew on site blamed their inefficiency on the fire vehicle provided to council.

"This vehicle is not the right one for Gwanda as it has no inbuilt water tank but its for bigger cities that have fire hydrants in every corner to draw water from," he said. "This is why we are always towing a bowser full of water on this vehicle and the water on the bowser is always not enough. As for today we didn't have the bowser as it was empty following water cuts in we faced in the week. The vehicle was also hired out in the morning to go around town inviting people to attend a church crusade at the stadium so the bowser was not attached to the vehicle," said the visibly out of sorts and frustrated "fireman".

Another resident on site blamed the poor workmanship of the fire grew in Gwanda as some of them are not fully trained as firemen. "We last had a real fireman in Gwanda when (Lawrence) Vela was still alive. He is the only man who knew what he was doing, houses never burnt down like this because he was well trained and very committed to his work not these jokes we see here," said the resident in reference to the late head of the Gwanda Fire and Ambulance Services Mr Lawrence Vela who died in 2011.

In a recent service delivery workshop in the town, the Municipality of Gwanda and its councillors gave their Fire and Ambulance Department a 9/10 efficiency in terms of service delivery a rating that was rubbished by residents and stakeholders of the town attending the workshop who gave the department a 2/10 rating.

The electricity supply department has always been warning people to treat all power points as being live even when power has been cut off to avoid unexpected fires or electrocution when power is suddenly restored.