Brutal Dar fire blamed on owners' failure to stick to safety guidelines
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Dar es Salaam. Firefighters might have gotten a better grip on the inferno that razed storage facilities and the offices of two firms at Millennium Business Park (MBP) yesterday if facility owners had been better prepped for fires and similar disasters.
Fire and Rescue Department (FRD) officials had to sit on the sidelines and helplessly watch the facility go up in smoke, and they blame it all on the fact that the managers of these premises did not follow city safety guidelines.
A senior official from the FRD told our reporters that first responders could not put out the fire because they ran out of water and there weren’t sufficient reserves close by, which should not have happened. Poor choices by the facility’s designers effectively contravened the city’s fire code.
“Fire and Rescue rules demand that every factory premises should install a reservoir for fire extinguishing liquids. This facility has none. The law must be observed if we are to avert fire disasters,” surmised FRD acting commander in the Dar es Salaam Special Zone Bakari Mrisho. Five fire tenders that arrived at 11am when the fire started failed to extinguish it because it kept spreading to the rest of Block F building that houses the storage facility of Sunda International Limited and offices of Hawk Security System Company.
About seven more fire tenders had to be called in to help tame the fierce fire, some from the Julius Nyerere International Airport and the Dar port, but it was all in vain.
More than six hours later the fire, which originated from the Sunda International storage facility, was still raging. The source of the fire, according to MBP officials, was an electric fault.
However, at the time we went to press the FRD was still trying to contain the fire. The 200,000 litres of water reserve at the department’s headquarters had been depleted and water had to be ferried in from other sources.
In addition to the 12 fire tenders, several water trucks had to be deployed to ferry water for replenishing the fire engines that were running out of water.
Originally created at the Export Processing Zones facility, the MBP houses several industries, banks and service industries.
Yesterday’s incident was the second fire accident involving an industrial facility. About a month ago a factory at the Chemicotex Company Limited in the city caught fire which led to the loss of property worth millions of shillings.
A week later the top floor of the PPF Tower high-rise building at the city centre also caught fire. As if this was not enough, a few days later several shops at the busy Mwenge bus stop also caught fire, leading to the loss of property also worth millions of shillings.
Officials of the FRD blamed lack of preparedness and failure to adhere to safety rules as the main reason for the disasters. To enforce the rules, FRD officials say they will start prosecuting owners of businesses, factories and buildings who ignore fire safety rules.
The source of yesterday’s fire, according to Sunda’s acting director, Mr Mashaka Zuberi, was low voltage in the go-down that led to air conditioners to fail.
When a technician from the Tanzania Road Haulage (TRH), one Evodius Minja, came to fix the problem, he ordered that power be switched off, and when it was switched on, an eruption occurred.
The Kinondoni Regional Police Commander (RPC), Mr Charles Kenyela, said: “The value of damaged properties is still unknown since the problem is not yet solved.”
“What I have done is to ask for more fire rescue forces from the airport and Tanzania Ports Authority (TPA) to solve the problem,” he closed.
Some of the goods mentioned to be imported by Sunda were soap powder, bicycle tubes, thermos flasks and other household goods.
Reporting by Abela Msikula and Louis Kolumbia
Fire and Rescue Department (FRD) officials had to sit on the sidelines and helplessly watch the facility go up in smoke, and they blame it all on the fact that the managers of these premises did not follow city safety guidelines.
A senior official from the FRD told our reporters that first responders could not put out the fire because they ran out of water and there weren’t sufficient reserves close by, which should not have happened. Poor choices by the facility’s designers effectively contravened the city’s fire code.
“Fire and Rescue rules demand that every factory premises should install a reservoir for fire extinguishing liquids. This facility has none. The law must be observed if we are to avert fire disasters,” surmised FRD acting commander in the Dar es Salaam Special Zone Bakari Mrisho. Five fire tenders that arrived at 11am when the fire started failed to extinguish it because it kept spreading to the rest of Block F building that houses the storage facility of Sunda International Limited and offices of Hawk Security System Company.
About seven more fire tenders had to be called in to help tame the fierce fire, some from the Julius Nyerere International Airport and the Dar port, but it was all in vain.
More than six hours later the fire, which originated from the Sunda International storage facility, was still raging. The source of the fire, according to MBP officials, was an electric fault.
However, at the time we went to press the FRD was still trying to contain the fire. The 200,000 litres of water reserve at the department’s headquarters had been depleted and water had to be ferried in from other sources.
In addition to the 12 fire tenders, several water trucks had to be deployed to ferry water for replenishing the fire engines that were running out of water.
Originally created at the Export Processing Zones facility, the MBP houses several industries, banks and service industries.
Yesterday’s incident was the second fire accident involving an industrial facility. About a month ago a factory at the Chemicotex Company Limited in the city caught fire which led to the loss of property worth millions of shillings.
A week later the top floor of the PPF Tower high-rise building at the city centre also caught fire. As if this was not enough, a few days later several shops at the busy Mwenge bus stop also caught fire, leading to the loss of property also worth millions of shillings.
Officials of the FRD blamed lack of preparedness and failure to adhere to safety rules as the main reason for the disasters. To enforce the rules, FRD officials say they will start prosecuting owners of businesses, factories and buildings who ignore fire safety rules.
The source of yesterday’s fire, according to Sunda’s acting director, Mr Mashaka Zuberi, was low voltage in the go-down that led to air conditioners to fail.
When a technician from the Tanzania Road Haulage (TRH), one Evodius Minja, came to fix the problem, he ordered that power be switched off, and when it was switched on, an eruption occurred.
The Kinondoni Regional Police Commander (RPC), Mr Charles Kenyela, said: “The value of damaged properties is still unknown since the problem is not yet solved.”
“What I have done is to ask for more fire rescue forces from the airport and Tanzania Ports Authority (TPA) to solve the problem,” he closed.
Some of the goods mentioned to be imported by Sunda were soap powder, bicycle tubes, thermos flasks and other household goods.
Reporting by Abela Msikula and Louis Kolumbia
In2EastAfrica
