Devolve fire fighting to combat city blazes

In the past few months, Nairobi County has been hit by major fires that have claimed both lives and property worth millions of shillings.

One of the latest of these disasters struck Gikomba market and the second hand clothes dealers who operate from there lost goods worth hundreds of millions of shillings.

As always, the firefighters arrived late at the scene and struggled for hours to put out the blaze.

City Park suffered a similar fate. Strangely, all these market fires start at night and are purportedly triggered by electrical faults.

The angry traders, blaming the Nairobi City county administration for their losses, pelted the fire engines with stones when they finally arrived and engaged the police in running battles.

In 2013, a fire destroyed a section of the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, prompting the authorities to close it temporarily, costing the economy millions of shillings.

There have been many smaller fires in the slums, causing deaths and loss of property.

These losses could have been minimised if fire engines had responded in time. Most of this loss of life and property can be attributed to negligence and incompetence on the part of the authorities at the Nairobi City county.

It is unfortunate that on many occasions wananchi vent their anger on the firemen, blaming them for arriving late, but the truth of the matter is that they are also just victims of circumstances. Their late arrival is usually due to the fact that they have to travel long distances through heavy traffic jams.

This is due to poor management of disaster response mechanisms whereby all the fire fighting resources are concentrated in the central business district.

The Nairobi fire station was built in the 1930s by the colonialists and its watch tower was the tallest building in the city. A fireman was stationed in the tower, a vantage point from which he would spot and report any fire around the then tiny railway outpost.

It is a shame that the Nairobi City county’s administration has continued to rely on this fire station that was designed to serve a few thousand people, not the current modern Nairobi with its more than three million people.

It makes no sense to expect the fire teams to respond to distress calls in far-off areas such as Kasarani and Githurai during rush hour using congested roads such as the Thika superhighway.

The Nairobi City County administration should devolve the fire department by setting up fire engine outposts in places such as Kasarani, Embakasi, Ngong, and Banana. These outposts should have at least two fire engines and several firemen on standby to respond to emergencies in the shortest time possible.

If a fire breaks out in the Pipeline area, the Embakasi station can respond swiftly, hence saving lives and property.

It is a matter of urgency that disaster response is devolved to stem loss of life and property due to the frequent fires in Nairobi and its environs.

The writer is the MP for Kasarani. [email protected]