Fire drill exposes MCC
Total Malawi Limited’s Mzuzu Fuel Depot fire-drill for Mzuzu City Council (MCC) fire brigade on Friday morning exposed the fire fighters’ need for better equipment.
When the alarm was raised, MCC fire brigade rushed to the depot situated at Luwinga Industrial Area.
However, a visit to the scene revealed that officials at the depot raised the fire alert to assess MCC fire brigade’s response in case of a fire at the premises.
this fire in October
Total Malawi Mzuzu Depot manager Tumani Mwakaposa said even though the fire fighting team arrived at the scene on time, their lack of equipment was exposed.
“It is an improvement on the part of the fire brigade. As you can see, they managed to arrive here on time,” he said, commending the fire fighting team for getting to the scene within 12 minutes after the alert.
He said it was a sign that the city council is improving in its response to emergencies.
However, Mwakaposa observed that the council’s equipment was not powerful with water pressure failing to reach distant places.
MCC has been blamed on several occasions for not being swift and effective enough when responding to fire incidents.
Reacting to accusations of late response to emergencies and capacity in October this year, MCC director of administration Victor Masina said the council has the capacity to fight fires, but acknowledged that in some cases fires broke out when the fire engines had not been serviced. n
