In an exclusive interview with Premier News the Fire Chief Ahmed Kamanda Bongay has stated that the Fire Force has access to only less than ten out of 298 fire hydrants in the Country. He made the disclosure while speaking to Premier News at his Tower Hill office. He went on to state that the Fire Force is less effective because their work is being limited by the operations of the Guma Valley Water Company and SALWACO.
“Most of the hydrant are not functioning right now, during the glorious days there were 298(two hundred and ninety eight) hydrant but presently we are working with less than 10 (ten) hydrant in the city and they are not control by the fire force, but the water people for Freetown Guma and for the provinces SALWACO.It’s not our business to regulate the water, Guma are doing their best. They are trying, but the factis that the issue of hydrants remains the same. We are working with less than ten hydrants, I will not sit and wait for people to fix the hydrant,and we have been putting modalities in place to cope with the water crises. We have installed a four thousand liter water tank at the back of this office, with a submissive machine sending water from a bore hole to the tank as a reserve for the fire engines. We’ve replicated the same at the kissy fire station andwe are trying to do the same at Aberdeen and Training School these are supports from NP petroleum,” he stated.
He furthered stated that for the first time in Sierra Leone, through the help of the World Bank a fire force directory has been instituted no through the Freetown emergency rehabilitation program.
In response to the hydrant crisis, the Public Relation Officer Guma Valley WaterCompany, AlieKabba denies that the activities of Guma are frustrating the work of the Fire Force.
“All our hydrants are working. There is water in them, but due to the rotation of the rationing of water around the city, that’s why they are saying the hydrants are not in good working order. We supply water around the city on eight hour intervals. We have divided the city into three zones- west is from Sussex to Lumley, central is from Congo Cross to Eastern police and east is from Eastern Police to Wellington, and each zone receives water for eight hours. If the supply is at Wellington, and there is a fire incident at Congo Cross they can’t access water unless the draw from our three main hydrants,”Kabbasaid.
He revealed that Guma operates three major hydrants that are never shorts of water- one at Goodrich, one at the drive leading from The Siaka Steven Stadium up to the Kingharman Road and Main Motor Road intersection at Brookfields and another at Eastern police. He said that the Fire Force lacks the correct hose tooperate from the hydrants.
The Fire Chief said they receive one hundred full protective gears, at the cost of forty million for one complete suit, including radio’s talkies, breathing apparatus and recharging machines.
He added that Scotland also donated three hundred and fifty protective suitsfollowed by Germanywho also donates good quantity of uniforms to forthe fire fighters.
On the area of fuel, he said that even when the force account goes in the red or there is fuel crisis, the National Petroleum would supplythe amount of fuel they want, and they would pay later.
A Senior Fire Officer who spoke on the basis of anonymity, revealed that out the 19 fire engines the fire force claim to have, only five are in operational, “one in Bo, Kenema, Kissy, Aberdeen and Head office”.
By Desmond Lewis