By Desmond Lewis
The Chief Fire Officer, Ahmed N.A.A. KamandaBongay, has said that even though the National Fire Force is not up to standard, it is not in a deplorable condition.
He told this medium in an exclusive interview that, he would not reveal how many fire engines are in the Country due to security reasons.
“We are a member of the SAHEL, and due to the recent terrorist attacked in the SAHEL, I will not disclose the amount of engines we have …For the safety of the people, we don’t give such information to the public,” KamandaBongayemphasised. He further said that they had been trying to manage the image of the fire force, had encountered certain challenges. “We have not been stagnant; we have always been going forward, last year we commissioned a new fire station in Waterloo highway.We have also concluded and finalized arrangements for the Kailahun fire station. Two stations went out last year and we have also built two in Pujehun and Kabala, but have not commissioned them yet because there are no fire engines,” he lamented.
Kamanda Bongay said that they made great progress in 2021, and that they have already reached procurement agreements and are waiting for their suppliers to deliver new fire engines.
The fire boss said they have also received directives from the Government of Sierra Leone to construct fire stations in Tonkolili, Port Loko and Bonth Districts, and that those stations would be built this year because what the force wants to achieve is for every area in Sierra Leone to get what it takes to put out fire outbreak first and they will later on look at standardization.
Chief Bongay revealed that the Force finds it challenging to transport engines from one area to another because of lack of funds, adding that most of the old engines the force uses are second hand gifts from other countries like Britain, China, Germany, Scotland.