Fireman’s plea: Please dial 114, not 112!

JIMMY LWANGILI

THE Tanzania Fire and Rescue Force is now working with other stakeholders in a campaign to raise public awareness on the use of its emergency telephone number to facilitate easy communication in the wake of disasters.

Commissioner General of the Fire and Rescue Force Thobias Andengenye says the campaign is aimed at educating the public on the use of emergency Number 114 in the event of disasters instead of dialing 112 which relates to crime incidents.
He made the remarks in Dar es Salaam during the launching ceremony organised in collaboration with United Against Crime (UAC). The campaign is sponsored by Alaf Company Limited, Selcom and Distinction Advertising Formulae.
He explained that under the three-year campaign, several groups, including schools, institutions, hospitals and farmers, would be enlightened on basic issues related to fire disasters. “We will also educate community members on how to control small-scale fire outbreaks in households, in order to block their escalation into infernos that tend to get out of control,” he said.
UAC Secretary General, Mr Elliot Andrew, said under the campaign, too, people would be given basic rescue guidelines. “We will also enlighten many people who don’t know how to use fire extinguishers,” said the Alaf Marketing Manager, Mr Shomari Shija.
Earlier, Commissioner Andengenye pointed out poor infrastructure as one of the drawbacks to effective fire-extinguishing operations, citing, for instance, difficulties in big trucks accessing narrow pathways. He said they were communicating with urban planners on how to address the problem.
The sponsorship, according to Selcom’s director Banjamin Mpamo, is part of the company’s Community Social Responsibility (CSR) obligation and comes at a time when fire outbreaks are causing massive loss to lives and property in Tanzania.
For the next three years, Selcom will be teaming up with a local NGO, United Against Crime (UAC), the Ministry of Home Affairs through the Fire and Rescue Force and Alaf, to better educate the public about the critical importance of knowing ways to prevent and fight home fire.
The campaign advocates for an emergence phone number, 114, to be dialed in case of fire; fitting homes with smoke alarms, fire extinguishers and providing for an escape route, things that could make the difference between life and death in a fire situation.