By MUNAMBEZA  MUWANEI  –
HARDLY a month passes in the country without media reports of people dying in a fire or property worth millions of Kwacha being lost in an inferno.
There are some memorable fires that left victims dead, including a 13-year-old boy with his sibling aged one year eight months.
The two siblings were burnt to death in Kitwe’s Mufuchani settlement across the Kafue River. Another one is the story of a mother who got burnt as she was trying to rescue her children from the inferno.
In Kapiri Mposhi, meanwhile, a man aged 28 together with his one-year-old daughter were burnt to death after the house they were sleeping in caught fire.
A block of three flats at Mungule Housing Complex in Northrise residential area in Ndola was extensively damaged in an inferno which destroyed property worth thousands of Kwacha.
In Lusaka, a fire swept through six offices at Intercity Bus Terminus destroying property belonging to  bus owners and the travelling passengers.
Such stories have now become the order of the day and the sad part is that lives continue to be lost in these fires.
Following these unquenched fires which have claimed lives and destroyed property, the public has been exposed to a lack knowledge about fire safety.
Some members of the public have complained about the delay by fire-fighters to arrive at the scene despite being informed on a toll-free line.
Recently a retired fire expert Robert Samukoko called on households to have fire extinguishers because they help to quench fires before the arrival of the fire brigade team.
But the problem seems to be the current law which only permits business houses to have fire extinguishers and there is nothing on residential houses.
Ndola District chief fire officer Wellington Mulambo advises people to immediately call the Fire brigade toll free line 993 whenever they notice a fire.
Mr Mulambo says members of the public should inform his department when they have a fire and should not rush to start removing property without calling them first.
The city of Ndola at the moment only has three fire engines and only one of them is reliable to cover the entire city.
Mr Mulambo says the city has expanded and is working at plans to construct more fire stations to cater for the growing population.
He says his department conducts inspections in business houses, inspects fire safety equipment and sensitises business houses on fire safety.
Mr Mulambo says the department is in the process of introducing an outreach sensitisation programme in residential areas, schools and markets.
He says members of the community had buried fire hydrants by planting lawns or gardens, making them invinsible.
Fire hydrants were at water supply points to the fire bridge in case of a fire outbreak.
“We have a lot of fire hydrants that have been buried in the city and we shall soon start to uncover them,” he says.
He has since urged members of the community to always switch off electrical appliances and unplug from the sockets when they do not have power supply or during load-shedding.
“Some of the humps that are on the roads also delay us whenever we are rushing to the scene,” he says.
As for Lusaka city, it has 159 fire fighters who are supposed to offer the service to more than three million residents within Lusaka boundary and beyond, meaning that each fire-fighter is responsible for more than 20,000 people.
Lusaka City Council (LCC) assistant public relations manager Brenda Katongola says the fire fighters are not enough due to the increasing population within the city boundary and beyond.
She says the council conducts drills mostly on special days like the World Fire Fighters Day, Labour Day, or on request by an  individual organisation or institution and sometimes when the council receives a delegation from outside the country.
“This is done to demonstrate the quick response to fires in the city and beyond,” she says.
Ms Katongola says it is a requirement that all constructions – residential, industrial and institutional – install water hydrants to ease the quenching of fires in case of a breakout.
“It is recommended that water undertakers are installed,” she said.
She says the council is constructing three more fire stations in Chelston, Chilenje and Makeni to help decentralise the service considering that currently there is only one fire station on Church Road in the city.
With the construction of the three other fire stations it is hoped that fire fighters will get to the areas in need quickly to attend to reports of fire breakouts from the residents.
Construction of the fire stations has started and the project is expected to cost about K10 million.
Ms Katongola says the construction of the fire stations would ease the challenges that the current station is facing.
To reduce stories of deaths from fires and loss of property, authorities and members of the public need sensitisation on fire safety.