Central East African Railways (Cear) on Thursday conducted a fire simulation exercise in Lirangwe, Blantyre to test their emergency system and response time of service departments such as the fire department, the Malawi Police Service (MPS), medical services and the community.
Malawi Red Cross Society (MRCS) was the first to respond after 20 minutes, the police arrived after 23 minutes, St. John Ambulance arrived after 34 minutes while the fire department were the last to respond and arrived 38 minutes later.
In an interview after the exercise, Cear’s general manager for human rights, health, safety, environment, community and communications Titus Mtonyo said the exercise was a success as the services reacted within the expected time frame.
“We called for the services and from Blantyre to Lirangwe the first response arrived in 20 minutes and the community was also very cooperative and we are happy and those we hired to simulate acted in a more natural manner,” he said.
This exercise comes as the company plans to scale up the amount of fuel it ferries.
Look out for more in tomorrow’s The Nation newspaper.
