Harare receives 4 fire tenders, equipment

Municipal Reporter

Harare City Council yesterday received a donation of four fire engines and an assortment of equipment from UK-based Operation Florian, with the city now having 12 out of the 25 fire engines required for its fleet.

A team from Operation Florian trained city fire fighters and emergency medical technicians in specialist training skills and they were presented with certificates at the handover ceremony after they completed a course in Train the Trainer Course in Fire Fighting.

The corruption-riddled council has been battling a serious shortage of emergency services equipment, having just eight of the required 32 ambulances and four out of the essential 10 fire stations.

Speaking during the handover at Harare Fire Station, Operation Florian team leader Tony Burscough said the donation could have come earlier but Covid-19 partly disrupted their operations.

“So far, we have donated over 40 vehicles to Zimbabwe and over 15 containers of equipment. It is quite a substantial amount donated over the years,” he said.

“We would like to remain here and do some training with your fire fighters again and bring yet more equipment. Because the fire safety concept is changing, we have to keep up with the change,” he said.

Harare Mayor Jacob Mafume accepted the donation on behalf of the city.

The city’s chief fire officer Mr Lovemore Mafukidze said among the donated fire tenders there is a specialised rescue engine which carries tools that can be used even when there is need to break into premises or vehicles.

Rescue engines can include firefighting apparatus or vehicles providing speciality emergency medical services as they can, within structure fires, also provide search and rescue equipment or services. This is why the fire brigade is called out to serious road accidents when vehicles have to be opened by having roofs or panels cut out without harming the injured inside.

They provide the highly specialised equipment needed being primarily designed for technical rescue situations.

Operation Florian team member Shepherd Ndlovu who is also a Fire Safety Engineering lecturer at the University of Central Lancashire urged fire fighters in Harare to enrol for the BSc Honours in Fire Safety now being offered by Zimbabwe Open University.