Old fire engines give GCC headache
Pini Bothoko | Tuesday February 15, 2022 11:31
The frequent breakdown of old fire engines is currently giving the Gaborone City Council (GCC) a persistent headache.
The revelation follows a The Monitor enquiry following an incident in which a police Ford Ranger double cab vehicle recently burnt to ashes near Phakalane.
Natural calamities like incidents of fire have no concept of time as they can occur whenever hence the need for fire engines to always be ready to move whenever a case of such urgency arises. Mmegi had sort to know how far the fire engine was when the police van ended up burning to ashes despite being in the vicinity of the city.
Responding to the The Monitor enquiry, GCC’s controller of fire services, Onkemetse Mosweu conceded that the fire department is currently struggling with the use of equipment in their two stations.
Mosweu revealed that they have two fire stations, one located near the bus rank and the other one near Sebele Mall opposite the Northgate Mall.
“Currently, we experience frequent breakdowns of fire engines because they are old and they attend to a number of incidents in the rapidly developing Gaborone City and neighbouring districts, for example, Tlokweng, Mogoditshane, Gabane to mention but a few,” he said.
Mosweu revealed they have proposed to procure new fire engines to replace the obsolete ones. He said they currently have five vehicles in operation, three fire engines, light pump being a rapid intervention vehicle and one command vehicle.
“We have signed a service level agreement with competent companies to maintain the fire trucks and equipment even though sometimes there is a challenge of shortage of spare parts, which are procured overseas,” he said.
Moreover, Mosweu said the fire department is planning to come up with a robust strategy, which is geared towards addressing the current and future economic trends and growth, which will be in line with Vision 2036 and the President Mokgweetsi Masisi's Reset Agenda.
“Due to the city expansion, the department has also made collaborations with stakeholders like the Botswana Defence Force, Botswana Police Service, Civil Aviation Authority Botswana and neighbouring local authorities to strengthen the firefighting services,” Mosweu said.
Mosweu added that the department has well-trained firefighters from the recruit firemanship level being the lowest rank up to the controller of fire services working 24 hours.
He said the two fire stations operate with a three-shift system at every fire station, morning, afternoon and night, with each shift having 15 firefighters.