Dar businesses operate in fear of fire outbreaks

EUGENIA MADHIDHA
‘Fire! Fire! Call the fire brigade.’ This has become a common saying in Dar es Salaam as many fire outbreaks are being reported frequently leaving many businesspeople crippled and having nowhere to start from since their commodities would have been destroyed in the inferno.
Fire outbreaks have become so common that media houses are awash with reports of fire incidents within the city. In most cases, the causes of the outbreaks usually remain mysterious but in a few circumstances that the causes have been unearthed, most of them are linked to human error.
Fire can be caused by so many things which are countless. These include cigarettes, sparks from electrical machines or plugs just but to mention a few. That is why the words ‘no smocking’ are common in most business premises especially those that deal with inflammable substances such as fuel and gas.
Leaving electrical gadgets plugged and unswitched off when leaving business premises has also been blamed as another cause of fire in some premises.
Though many cases have been witnessed in Dar recently what comes to our mind is the recent incident when Tanzania Breweries Ltd was gutted by fire.
The overnight inferno destroyed dozens of crates with empty beer bottles estimated to be worth 4.5bn/-. The cause of the fire, however, is still being investigated though the incident was described as an act of sabotage.
A few days later another business premises was razed down by fire. Murzah Oil Mill’s Jumbo Packaging print industries in Kipawa, Dar es Salaam was reduced to ashes..
The fire was caused by flying sparks from a welding machine and destroyed property worth billions of shillings. Asked for a comment, the company’s managing director, Abdul Zakaria, could not immediately state the extent of the damage caused by the fire but he said each warehouse stored at least 1.000 tonnes of packaging rollers of papers estimated to be costing billions of shillings.
Besides the above major incidents to recently rock Dar, so many other fires were reported leaving businesspeople shading tears and wondering if ever they will be able to stand back to their feet again.
It is against this background that the business sector continues to operate in fear of fire outbreaks. What is more disturbing, however is that many businesspeople don’t know what to do when they are faced with this situation and worse still what steps to do to prevent the fires.
A snap survey carried out by this reporter revealed that most of the people don’t believe fires can be prevented. They attributed it to fate.
“I believe fire outbreaks don’t just occur. It’s a matter of bad luck and once it attacks you, you won’t escape from it, no matter hard you try to prevent the fire,” said Daudi Mlope a businessman who runs a successful grocery shop near Bakwata Busi Stand in Yombo.
Most businesspeople, however, blamed the fire brigade, popularly known as Zimamoto for their failure to quickly respond to fire outbreaks.
“The fire brigades are to blame, because they take urges to respond to a call and worst still they come unprepared either without adequate water or ill equipped,” said one businesswoman who requested anonymity.
She also added that a lot of property could be saved if the fire fighters put their house in order.
The fire brigade department has for a long time reiterated that they were doing their best to fight fires in the city, turning the blame on many barriers that stifle their efforts..
Traffic jams have been described as the main challenge this department is facing in executing their duties. This causes them to reach their destination very late and at a time when fire would have destroyed a larger chunk of the property.
Addressing the press recently the Dar es Salaam Head of Rescue and Fire Brigade, Fikiri Salla, not only did he blame the unplanned erection of tall buildings and traffic jams as major challenges the department was facing, but also highlighted the problem of insufficient water at fire brigade stations.
He said it was a challenge that is complicating fire extinguishing exercises in case of fire outbreaks.
Despite all these challenges facing the fire fighting department in the city, the responsible authorities are not helplessly watching as fire continue to wreck havoc but have embarked on measures to counter this social anomaly.
It is against this background that the city council recently sent ten employees to Germany for practical training on how to deal with fire incidents.
In addition, it spent 12m/- as transport costs for two special fire engines, from Japan to Tanzania, meant to enhance fire fighting in the city.
The vehicles have been donated by the government of Japan and are part of the bilateral cooperation in supporting the social development in the country.
As much important as it is to educate business people on how to deal with the fire when it visit them, it is also important to teach them on how to prevent the problem. As the saying goes ‘prevention is better than cure.’
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