Fire fighting partnership a welcome development

Operation Florian, a fire and humanitarian organisation has committed itself to improving fire fighting activities, starting with detection in the Bulawayo City Council with exchange visits, training and provision of equipment.
Operation Florian was established as a charity in 1995. It is a UK fire service humanitarian charity working to promote the protection of life among communities in need worldwide, through the provision of equipment and training to improve fire fighting and rescue capabilities.
Both Bulawayo and Operation Florian are convinced the ongoing training programme has turned the fortunes of the city’s fire department following the donation of state-of-the-art fire fighting equipment by the latter.
The council now feels its plans to open a fire training school could be given an impetus owing to the exchange programme. Once successful, the fire training school could be the first and only fire training college in the country as no higher learning institution offers such training.
Local authorities like Plumtree, which has a twinning relationship with Bulawayo, Hwange, Victoria Falls, Beitbridge and Gweru are also tapping from Bulawayo’s twinning relationship.
The improvement has also been noticed with the re-opening of Nkulumane Fire Station, which had been closed due to viability problems in the past few years.
Although Bulawayo is largely the recipient, the Operation Florian team also said it was learning a lot from the city’s professional fire fighting activities.
The training course started last week and will end early next month with a conference.
The training is unique because no other place offers fire fighting training courses in the country, making Bulawayo the only city with access to professional and technical training on fire awareness and detection.
The city invited other local authorities and organisations to learn from the ongoing training programme.  These include Beitbridge, Gwanda, Hwange, Lupane, Plumtree, Gweru and Victoria Falls, the Zimbabwe National Army and the Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe.
Operation Florian last week donated two fire tender engines and equipment worth more than $1 million to the Bulawayo City Council. This is not the first time the charity organisation has donated to the council.
On an earlier visit last year, the team donated a fire tender and equipment worth more than $700 000.
In an interview during one of the training sessions at Famona Fire Station, Operation Florian chairman Mr Michael Doherty said they would donate to council all the equipment they were using for training. These include computers, projectors and cameras for use in office and in times of emergency.
He said he was impressed with the city’s progress in fire activities and commended the city fathers for the standard of fire fighting.
“We have been here for some days now where we are doing risk assessment, fire detection and how to make a workplace safe,” he said.
The training course involves theoretical and                 practical aspects and also the use of visuals on how to detect fire.
“This is a follow up visit to last year’s successful one and we are doing this in collaboration with the University of Central Lancashire, which is carrying out the training,” said Mr Doherty.
The donations and visits by the team were organised by Mr Shephard Ndlovu, who was a fireman in Bulawayo between 1994 and 1997 and now a senior lecturer at the University of Central Lancashire. Mr Ndlovu is leading the training, assisted by some students from his department at the university.
Mr Doherty commended Mr Ndlovu for his efforts.
“This is as a result of Shephard’s efforts.  He asked for this assistance and that is why we are here interacting and exchanging notes and ideas with Bulawayo.
“We are happy with the progress in the city; we have noted that they have recorded a 25 percent increase in fire awareness activities since we started last year. This is evidenced by the opening of one more fire station and improvement in the response to fire,” said Mr Doherty.
“The discipline and standards in the fire department here are very high and we are also learning a lot from them. The course is a continuous process and we will continue supporting it in phases.”
Mr Ndlovu said: “What we are doing here is exactly what I teach at university. We are focusing on Chapter 11 of the city’s by-laws which spells out how modern buildings should be built, that the structure should be fire resistant, make it easy to detect fire and provide safety from fire.
“It is important for councils to implement this chapter when erecting structures and we are happy the chief fire officer here is able to apply some of the provisions and we are only here to assist them on a few areas because the standard of training in this city is very good. All we are doing is helping improve the level of assessment.”
The BCC chief fire officer, Mr Richard Peterson, bemoaned lack of fire fighting courses in local tertiary institutions and commended the British team for training city firemen.
“Zimbabwe has no college for such training; we read on our own. We are in the process of registering a fire training school with assistance from the University of Central Lancashire but there are certain things we have to meet first,” he said.
Mr Peterson said he was hopeful the relationship with the college would assist.
“As soon as we are through we will start the school. There is no specific budget for this as we are looking at expanding this existing school which might need something in the range of $15 000.
“We hope Lancashire will continue assisting. This training session is important because it is preparing future lecturers,” said Mr Peterson.
Mr Doherty underscored his organisation’s support for the upcoming college.
Council spokesperson, Mrs Nesisa Mpofu, said the relationship with the city of Aberdeen and the training course together with the donations could not have come at a better time as the city now felt it was improving in its fire-fighting preparedness.
Mrs Mpofu said they were now able to respond to fire outbreaks in a maximum time of 15 minutes for the furthest places in the city.
She said progress in the city’s relationship with Operation Florian was also manifested in the re-opening of Nkulumane Fire Station among other activities.
“When you look at the city and the country as a whole, the fire department faced serious constraints in resources and was the worst affected by brain drain on ambulances and firemen,” said Mrs Mpofu.
“Our fire tenders and equipment were very old and the two we received this year and the one we got last year together with equipment will go a long way in resuscitating our operations. This allows council to channel resources to other critical areas.
“We welcome this partnership and also looking at the quality of training we are getting we are taking international standards.
“Our long term plan is to open a training school and this training comes as preparation and we now have equipment, have intensified outreaches and can make fliers as well for awareness.”
The other fire stations are Mpopoma, Nketa and North End.