State-of-the-art fire tender for Hwange

. Tobias Mandoreba
HWANGE Local Boarda��s civil protection preparedness in case of fire outbreaks and other related disasters received a huge boost when the local authority received a donation of a state-of-the-art fire tender recently.

The United Kingdom-sourced equipment was donated by a local businessman Mr Peter Lobel and Bakera��s Inn, with the handover ceremony held at Empumalanga terminus.

Lobel, through his Mudzimi Wemoto Project, has been donating fire tenders to all local authorities throughout the country from 2011 with similar donations in the past having been made to Harare City Council (nine) Mutare City Council (two), Masvingo City Council (two) and single fire tenders to Kariba, Gokwe, Marondera Councils.

In an interview at the function, Lobel, who used to own Lobels Bakery and runs a shipping company, Allan Wack and Shepard, highlighted that he was motivated to start the project to assist local authorities in disaster preparedness in 2011 after a fire incident in Harare which exposed a severe shortage of resources at the City of Hararea��s Fire department.

a�?After one unfortunate fire incident in 2011 in the capital, I visited Harare City Council and was shocked to discover that they had one reliable fire tender which was an old model. From thereon, I was motivated to work on assisting all councils to have modern fire tenders to help mitigate against loss of human life and property during fire outbreaks and other disasters.

At first I was mobilising resources on my own before I realised that I had to engage other organisations as the demand by these local authorities is huge. In this case for Hwange we worked with Bakers Inn and in the past I have also worked with the Insurance Council of Zimbabwe,a�? he said.

Speaking at the ceremony, Hwange Local Board Town Secretary Mr Ndumiso Mdlalose said the new equipment would go a long way in helping the country at large achieve the targets under the Zim Asset Infrastructure and Utilities cluster.

a�?This is a critical acquisition for us and we would like to thank Mr Peter Lobel whose past donations in this field throughout Zimbabwe are well documented. With such apparatus, we will effectively play a part in helping the country achieve the goals under the Infrastructure and Utilities Cluster.

The donated fire tender, with all accident rescue equipment, will beef up the districta��s Civil Protection Unit headed by the District Administrator and on top of it all, it comes handy to us as we have since applied for municipality status.a�? said Mdlalose.

The fire tender will come handy to the province which was being served by fire tenders from Hwange Colliery Company, Zimbabwe Power Company and Victoria Falls Municipality.

The equipment, which carries a water bowser of 5 000 litres is ideal for Hwange which has very few fire hydrants.