By George Bulombola

Mzuzu, June 6, Mana: Africa Fire Mission has said safety of both communities and fire officers should be ensured in responding to fire emergencies, hence the need for skilled and well trained personnel.

In an interview with Malawi News Agency (Mana) in Mzuzu on Thursday, Team Instructor of Africa Fire Mission, Frank Giovannelli said this during training of Mzuzu City Council Fire Brigade, Civil Aviation officers from Mzuzu and Karonga, on fire fighters’ and communities’ safety during fire emergencies.,

He said the training would facilitate experience sharing and knowledge building for enhanced response to fire accidents.

“We interact with various players who are involved in fire fighting accidents to so that we share experiences for us to appropriately serve communities,” Giovannelli said.

He said fire fighting requires well experienced leadership and coordinated efforts for safety for both fire fighters and those involved in the accident including property.

“We are appreciative to the government for allowing us to interact with our fellow professionals in fire fighting. The more we interact, the more knowledge we share,” the team Instructor added.

One of the Fire Officers at Mzuzu Airport, Francis Mkandawire said the training was important to the officers’ profession as it provided a platform through which they could acquire global knowledge in responding fire accidents.

Commenting on why, fire officers are in some cases blamed for responding late to fire accidents in Mzuzu City, he said that the respondent to fire accidents was the City Council and Civil Aviation only comes in as a back-up.

“The first point of call in time of fire accidents, is the council and our core duties are focused on aircrafts and our offices.  The time they refer a case to us in most cases is late hence clients end-up pointing fingers at us,” Mkandawire elaborated.

Chief Fire Officer for Mzuzu City Council, Precious Mandala commended the mission for the initiative in enhancing capacity of fire brigades in Africa including Malawi through targeted trainings using locally available resources.

“This initiative will boost the officers’ confidence and improved expertise in responding to fire emergencies and other life threatening situations,” he said.

Mandala added that the engagement was insufficient without necessary equipment and appealed to stakeholders to invest in the fire industry to meet modern firefighting standards for effective service delivery.

Similar meetings are expected to be held in Lilongwe, Blantyre and Zomba City Councils.

Africa Fire Mission which is based in Cincinnati in United States of America, was founded by Nancy and Davie Moore in 2012 and among others, it provides Fire Departments across Africa with equipment and training for safety of firefighters and communities.