Fire hydrants can save lives, property
LATEST disasters as the one that resulted in Genius “Ginimbi” Kadungure’s death and that of Kariba accident and the burning down of Chirundu block of flats in Belvedere have all been caused by fire outbreaks.
From a simple analysis of why Zimbabweans are losing lives and property due to fires, my basic conclusion is the local authorities have abandoned the installation of fire hydrants as part of their urban planning.
It is rare to see a fire hydrant in Zimbabwe, today’s children do not know what a hydrant is. Everytime there is a fire outbreak, you hear the general public saying: “Fire brigade yauya isina mvura”, how do you expect a fire brigade vehicle to carry 20 000 litres or more of water to fight a raging fire. In those incidents that is when the fire brigade should connect to fire hydrants.
In places, particularly cities where a lot of people work and live, fire hazards are a relentless worry. With this reason, it is crucial for our local authorities to have fire safety services and systems and a source of water that can be quickly accessible. To prevent unnecessary deaths and property destruction, fire hydrants provide a stable place for storage and water supply which should be supported by the local authority.
Our country is now dominated by boreholes and there is now a need to change our laws where fire hydrants are connected to a secondary source that is readily available from underground pipes or perhaps a dams.
According to urban planners, fire hydrants do not operate alone, they are one part of a complex system that has been designed to ensure that an area has complete coverage for fire protection. Whenever you spot a fire hydrant, it is obvious that it is installed in that location strategically to give that neighbourhood complete access to a water source when needed.
There are two components that make a fire hydrant work, the water supply and a fire hose. The way fire hydrants are designed and connected gives firefighters the required easy access to connect their equipment and quickly deal with the emergency situation.
We call upon the urban planners and the city engineers to seriously consider the issue of fire hydrants as top priority. A fire hydrants is simply a point where people are able to tap into a water supply and use it to assist firefighters in putting out fires. By connecting a hose to a hydrant, they gain access to all the water they need to douse a burning building. Let us stop unnecessary deaths and property destruction in Zimbabwe.