Rural district councils and their urban counterparts have received 114 Belarusian-made fire tenders as Zimbabwe moves to strengthen emergency response capacity at local authority level.
Belarusian representative and Bison Agro Machinery marketing director Mr Andrei Kloeinov said the equipment rollout was being accompanied by efforts to build local firefighting capacity.
"Over 90 RDCs and town councils have received Belarusian fire tenders named Red Lion, in total 114 units," Mr Kloeinov said.
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"Belarus is supporting not only in the supply of the equipment, but also with the training on application of fire extinguishing techniques."
The training programme, conducted last year in collaboration with the Belarus Institute of Disaster Management, involved two cycles.
The first trained 86 firefighters and fire tender operators, while the second equipped 21 trainers from Harare and Bulawayo fire stations with skills that could subsequently be transferred to personnel in other local authorities.
Mr Kloeinov said RDCs were now undergoing training for their newly established fire brigades at the two stations.
The equipment is expected to strengthen emergency response in communities that have traditionally relied on limited or ageing firefighting resources.
The Red Lion fire tenders can carry 5 000 litres of water and are capable of drawing water from external sources such as rivers and lakes.
They also carry 300 litres of foam-forming agent, allowing them to respond to fires involving chemical and electrical sources.
Each fire tender is fitted with a water gun capable of projecting water to considerable heights under pressure.
Mr Kloeinov said the vehicles were already being deployed beyond conventional firefighting duties.
"Now at every fire incident, and even in case of serious car accident, you may see these fire tenders attending," he said.
For local authorities, the intervention represents a major improvement in emergency response capacity, particularly for councils that previously had inadequate equipment to deal with serious fires.
Epworth Local Board chief executive officer Dr Wilton Mhanda said the new equipment would help address the longstanding challenges faced by local authorities.
Speaking to the media after the maintenance training, Dr Mhanda thanked the Second Republic for the intervention.
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"We could not deal with fire over the years because there were only few old fire tenders in the country, but now this will be the thing of the past as all local authorities are equipped with fire tenders," he said.
Meanwhile, Belarus has indicated its readiness to support Zimbabwe with additional firefighting technologies.
Mr Kloeinov said one possible next step was the introduction of a national fire monitoring system for the early detection of fires in forests and fields.
"On the prospective side, Belarus is ready to assist with new equipment and technologies," he said.
"One of the next steps in line of fire security would be implementation of national fire monitoring system for early detection of the fires in the forests and at the fields."
The proposed system could complement the expanded firefighting capacity created through the distribution of the tenders and training of local personnel, while improving Zimbabwe's ability to detect and respond to fires before they spread.
