The Bulawayo City Council (BCC) says it is planning to upgrade its training facility into a registered fire brigade school to benefit other local authorities throughout the country.
BCC chief fire officer Richard Peterson said the idea was mooted following observations the country did not have a fire training college or university.
He was addressing members of the visiting British-based humanitarian organisation, Operation Florian. The international organisation provides free technical assistance on fire control-related issues in developing countries.
“In Zimbabwe we do not have national colleges and universities where we can send our fire fighters and officers for training. We have invited other authorities besides Bulawayo to come and share the knowledge with us,” he said.
Peterson said the local authority desired to set up a fire brigade school in the city to allow for the sharing of knowledge with other local authorities in the country.
“If we meet the requirements of the government definitely we are going to be registered this year. But with financial constraints of the council maybe next year if finance improves in the council cash flow improves in council maybe this year.
“We need about $15 000 because the school is already there. What we need is to meet are the requirements of tertiary education. We would have loved to have it registered,” he said.
In an interview, the senior divisional officer-in-charge of Fire Prevention, Edward Mpofu, said the course at the training workshop were very beneficial.
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“The courses are benefiting us a lot. The standards are high in United Kingdom and they will also benefit from us. We learnt their by laws that are different from ours. This will uplift our standards,” he said.
