Rwanda National Police

The Rwanda National Police’s fire and rescue brigade (FRB) has today, conducted a campaign on fire safety precautions to over 900 students and their teachers at Nyagatare Secondry schools in Nyagatare district, Eastern province.

The move aims at enlightening citizens on fire safety precautions and prevention of fire outbreaks in their homes and working areas.

RNP Fire and rescue brigade’s Assistant inspector of Police (AIP) Boniface Runyange told the trainees that most of fire incidents result from carelessness which leads to loss of people's lives and properties worth millions of money. 

“The majority of fire incidents can be prevented by paying heed to guidelines of the safety precautions. There are basic techniques one can apply to prevent fire outbreaks; records show that most of fire incidents in the country originate from people’s recklessness and lack of skills with regards to dealing with electricity, use of old electric wirings and overloading.” Stressed AIP Runyange

The officer urged the students to always make sure that the iron is unplugged from the power source whenever they are done with ironing clothes, sheets, etc., students were as well tipped that candles could also lead to a fire outbreak, and students must ensure that candles are not lit in their absence.

About the rescue techniques in case of a fire outbreak, AIP Runyange told the trainees that fire extinguishers are good tools used to put out fire outbreaks resulting from electricity; the officers showcased the basic techniques that one could use to protect people and properties from a fire incident.

Nsengiyumva Teresphore one of the trainees said that the training was crucial considering the fact that they deal with electricity most often, more so he thanked RNP officers for sharing knowledge on how to prevent and respond to fire outbreaks  

‘’Fire outbreaks seldom happen in our homes, but when they occur we rush to call Fire Bridage officers to come to our rescue; but going forward this is going to be a thing of the past, with the basic skills we have learned today; it’s no doubt that we will be able to rescue both people and property in case of fire incidents,” stated Nsengiyumva.

The Fire and rescue brigade officers also reached out to other 400 citizens from Gatsibo; they were equipped with the basic skills on how to handle fire outbreaks in their neighborhoods. The officers urged the trainees that the assumption that fire is unpredictable is false; these cases are avoidable if one follows rules and guidelines tackled during the training sessions.

The officers reminded trainees that the causes of fire outbreaks in Rwanda are mainly; inproper use of cooking gas, old electric wirings, overloading, carelessness, arson and ignorance. 

RNP will extend the awareness campaigns on fire safety precautions to all parts of the country so as to curb these incidents throughout the country.  

111, 0788311224, 0788311120 are numbers to call in case of any sort of fire outbreaks.