I know politics is in the minds of many people but today I want to sway your thoughts to something of equal importance. Today I want to talk about fire.
Fire without question is probably one of man’s biggest discoveries and no doubt one of man’s biggest curses depending on which side of the fence you are on.
On Thursday one of the headline pieces of news was the fire in Buguruni Malapa that gutted a house and left nine people dead from the same household.
I had the ‘misfortune’ of being assigned to cover the story and had the gruelling task of interviewing one of the neighbours and hear her recount the ordeal she and others went through to try and save the poor souls who were trapped in the house.
I have never been a fan of horror movies and so if the video of Thriller by the late Michael Jackson gave me sleepless nights for weeks, you can imagine the effect the house fire must be affecting me.
After the narration, I went and took a peek at the house and saw the room where the family died together, the children burnt together with their grandmother, the scene has left a bitter taste in my mouth. In the course of gathering news, there are some interesting facts I learned that before I didn’t know happened.
For starters, when the fire broke out, someone ran to the nearby police station only to find it closed, I am told stations get locked up around midnight, for why, am still left baffled.
Two, it became quite apparent to me that a lot of people don’t know how to respond to disasters. When the front door which had an iron grill jammed and became overheated, people use stones to try and break it down to no avail. A better option would have been a sledge hammer to the door or the walls or window area but this wasn’t done.
Three, my friends from Tanesco whilst known to have a quick hand at cutting the power, they were sluggish to reach the scene of the fire to disconnect the power and putting more people at risk.
Until I left scenes after spending a good hour there, the excellent ‘power choppers’ hadn’t arrived and people didn’t know why, including yours truly, probably their biggest critic.
So while I commend the good job that the fire department does in putting out fires, I can boldly say that they haven’t done enough to prepare people in how to respond to fire outbreaks, in educating the masses on the importance of having fire extinguishers in their homes and how to use the gadgets and also now that many Tanzanians have gas cylinders in their homes, where to store them after use.
Due to the nature and number of people dead from the fire, the Dar es Salaam Regional Commissioner declared the funeral arrangements theirs and they incurred all the costs.
I will say this is a commendable commitment but if they were ready to do this, I think they should go a step further and assist those affected namely the husband who was at the mosque when the fire broke out and the neighbours who earnestly tried to save those trapped with counselling.
The same fire that you use to prepare your nyama choma if it goes out of control could scar you life or even kill you. I would suggest that it is high time now that the relevant authorities should look for mechanisms of ensuring that each household have a fire extinguisher and this should be enforced as is done for motorists.
What is scaring the living daylights out of me is, when ever you hear talk of oil and gas, it’s about local content, gas pipes and connectivity to households but rarely or never about the handling and disaster management. Let’s all strive at being forward looking people and not responders of ad hoc situations. Stay safe and look after each other.
/Daily News.
No comments :
Post a Comment