{In a bid to foster public participation in handling fire outbreaks, Rwanda National Police (RNP) continued to reach out to medical practitioners and employees at Nyamiyaga Health center and equipped them with basic firefighting techniques.}
Those trained include doctors and other support staffing working at the health Centre ; they were equipped with skills of preventing fire outbreaks and how to put out fire in case it breaks out.
They were given skills on how to use fire extinguisher, sand and other gadgets to put out fire.
While training the hospital staff on December 23, the District Community Liaison Officer of Kamonyi, Inspector of Police (IP) Athanase Niyonagira told about 25 staff to always take precaution to prevent fires, and intervene in time when it breaks out, to prevent escalation and extending to other parts of the buildings.
He however told them to always be quick to call Police for timely intervention, and not to intervene when the fire has escalated and pose threat.
“In most cases, fire outbreak in buildings are caused by short circuit resulting from old or substandard installations and overloaded gadgets, so always check such installations and switch off all electronics, whenever you are away, not only here at the hospital but even in your respective homes,” said IP Niyonagira
He urged them to always take the initiative of reporting any fire outbreak to police instantly, as well as show people how they can contain the fire with available equipment before it spreads to other parts of the house, neighbourhood and bushes.
“After reporting to police, you should ask people to evacuate the building immediately. Acting responsibly by taking precautions and strong partnership through timely information sharing can prevent fire outbreaks from costing lives and damaging large amounts of property,” IP Niyonagira said.
He further urged them to sensitize local residents about the causes of fires, so that they keep away from starting dangerous fires and noted some of the major causes of fire outbreaks as; faulty electronic appliances, overloading and unattended candles.
Police has a fully fledged Fire and Rescue Brigade, with standby firefighters and trucks in all provinces ready for any intervention whenever a fire is reported.
Police toll free lines 111 and 112, as well as mobile lines 0788311120, 0788311224 0788311657 and0788311335 are always available for anyone to call in case of a fire outbreak.
Following the training, the director of the health center, Camille Nsabimana thanked Rwanda National Police for extending the skills to the hospital workers adding that it will help in case fire breaks out.
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