Dodoma ‘fire lady’ blames carelessness

DODOMA Fire and Rescue regional commander, Ms Regina Kaombwe said yesterday that the increase of fire outbreaks incidents were a result of ‘laissezfaire’ arguing that people do not seek ‘safety clearance permits’ for their architectural drawings.

Speaking to reporters here, Ms Kaombwe said that according to a recent study, most fire victims report incidents only after failed attempts to put it off – then belatedly choose to call the fire brigade. She also said that most fires were caused by people who left electronic gadgets on the switch, especially during the night when they fall asleep – so the devices get heated, or blow out and cause fires.

For the past one year, for instance, a mere five architectural drawings had been sent in for clearance at the fire and rescue brigade. “… this gives us immense challenges … we are doing our best to educate the public on the importance of observing the safety measures and switch off their electrical devices when they go to bed” said Ms Kaombwe.

She said with the new look of the Capital City, the Dodoma Fire and Rescue force needs to have state of an art equipment to cope with the increasing demand and population as the previous one were meant to serve the region.

However, she said, they have written to the water authorities in the region to look into possibilities of having more fire water hydrants since the demand is high when it comes to dealing with fire breakouts.

“So far we are served with fire water hydrants at Bunge, Nyerere Square, Fire Brigade and Maili Mbili centres most of which with an exception of Maili Mbili water authorities disconnect them during the night, thus in times of fire, it becomes a challenge” said the Commander.

Adding that “It is high time the hydrant have water full time and they construct more in various areas for easy operations as with fire breakout you cannot tell when they will happen”.

She gave the sentiment following increasing fire breakout incidents saying the one that gutted Aga Khan Hospital on Sunday evening was due to over curren