The Regional Fire and Rescue Commander, Ms Regina Kaombwe told ‘Daily News’ here yesterday the shortage poses a serious crisis on the firefighting missions at the country’s capital city. “There are about 110 fire hydrants in the city … unfortunately only nine of them operate,” she said.
Dodoma Urban Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (Duwasa) spokesperson Mr Sebastian Waryoba had no comment yesterday but the Fire and Rescue Commander said the two state institutions had already discussed the matter.
A fireplug or fire hydrant is a connecting point by which firefighters can tap into a water supply source. With the region expanding quickly owing to the government decision to relocate its administration from the port city of Dar es Salaam, the units need sufficient fireplug to tap water. Ms Kaombwe says such shortage is further worsened by insufficient number of firefighters in the capital.
Figures from the unit show that there are only 79 fire fighters in the region with about seven districts. Of this 48 are stationed at the regional head office yet making a deficit of over 60 officers in Dodoma town alone. “As I said the region is expanding very fast and this means we need more officers to help respond to any fire problem. For now we’re managing with the available fire fighting officers,” she said.
lately the region had witnessed a wave of fire incidences and residents were concerned that the existing fire hydrants are as well not reliable. “We had an incidence last week and fire fighters went to tap water at one of the hydrant along Nyerere road (Nyerere Square) but it had no water.
The same fireplug had water during the day time. This means Duwasa close the supply during night hours,” said Masumbuko Alphonce who is a resident in the capital.