Rwanda National Police

On August 11, a house located in Rebero, Kagugu Cell in Gikondo Sector caught fire killing a set of twins.

On the same day, fire broke out in another residential house located in Indatwa Village of Rwezamenyo Sector in Nyarugenge District. Fortunate enough, in this incident, all the four children who were trapped inside the same house were successfully rescued by the Rwanda National Police (RNP) Fire and Rescue Brigade (FRB) together with the residents. 

According to statistics, between January and July this year a total of 105 fire incidents were recorded across the country, majority in the City of Kigali. At least 31 people were injured in addition to 16 fatalities. 

The fires include those in houses—both residential and commercial—vehicles as well as wild fires; although the vast majority are reported in residential facilities. This, however, indicates 11 percent reduction compared to the same period last year, according to the report.

“We have invested much in preventive measures including awareness and educating different groups of people on how to avert fires as well as acquiring hi-tech firefighting equipment. This has massively paid-off,” said Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Jean Bosco Seminega, the Commanding Officer (CO) of the Fire and Rescue Brigade.

The CO, however, blames majority fire incidents to human errors or behaviours and poor electric installations.

“Domestic appliances such as heaters, iron, fridge, washing machines are handled carelessly. The same goes to overloading of extension cables with less capacity, but have to hold a TV and the whole sound system, fridge, heater washing machine among others. In such cases, there are higher chances of short circuit and the next minute the whole house will be in frames,” ACP Seminega observed. 

“This is ignorance and carelessness that we are trying to address through house-to-house inspection, conducting awareness and providing training to different groups of people. So far, we have trained more than 200, 000 people on fire prevention and how to use different traditional methods and firefighting gadgets,” he adds.

“Together with other entities concerned, we have also inspected over 1, 200 public and private facilities mainly looking at the power installations where we come up with recommendations especially on facilities with old or poor electric installation.” 

The CO also outlines littered lit materials like cigarettes, charcoal burning, children playing with fire (playing with matchbox), candles, leaking gas and petroleum products poor wiring systems of vehicles and welding as other causes of fire.

“All these causes are preventable. Besides being responsible and careful, we call upon owners of facilities to acquire fire extinguishers, install fire alarm systems, fire and water hydrants and hose reel, sprinklers and para-lighting system installations.”

Water hydrants facilitate firefighters to access water at the scene rather than fire trucks trekking to Kimisagara—in Kigali for example—to fetch more water. 

The Prime Minister’s Instructions of July 2014, related building safety regulations aimed at protecting people and their property against fire outbreaks in Rwanda requires that “any public building or other public places’ to have a fire alarm system with an alarm bell on each floor; smoke detectors and sprinklers on each floor; a fire extinguisher at every 50 meters on each floor and a hose reel on each floor.”

With over 150 firefighting officers and acquisition of more hi-tech firefighting trucks and other disaster response equipment, the CO says it has facilitated them to at least respond within ten minutes.

Currently, FRB has firefighting trucks and disaster response equipment in all regions, but ACP Seminega says the plan is to also have similar structures in all the 30 districts.

“People shouldn’t panic when calling for the response team. Knowing exactly where the incident has occurred helps to avoid delays and to respond in time. We have a toll-free line—111—but we also have mobile lines; 0788311120 and 0788311224 for people to call as soon as a disaster occurs for immediate rescue.”

According to Eng. Jean d'Amour Rwunguko, the acting City engineer, there is a checklist for quality electrical materials as well as the electro-mechanical design that have to be presented and approved before issuing a construction permit for either a commercial or residential building. 

“One of the conditions is the quality of cables, installing firefighting and fire detection gadgets and lightening roads. For residential, we also look at the wiring system, how cables are connected and the voltage capacity. We have engineers that follow to ensure that these are fulfilled before a building is open to any business,” Eng. Rwunguko said.

“The same goes to residential houses that are transformed into business facilities; they have to apply for the license before they are given a green light, and one of the requirements is to upgrade all the systems…the whole electrical plan have to be revised to be able to accommodate the business systems. We work with the Police to crackdown on all those that violate these safety standards to prevent any disasters that might arise,” he adds.

The Rwanda Standards Board (RSB) specifies electrical cables of cross-section area between 1.5mm2 to 6mm2 and that insulated conductors have to be made of ‘Copper only.’

Jacques Munyandamutsa, the advisor to the Managing Director of Energy Utility Corporation Limited (EUCL), said that they also work with the Police to arrest illegal or lay electricians that call themselves ‘abahigi.’

“This is done to prevent any substandard installations and to prevent fire disasters that might lead to loss of lives and property,” Munyandamutsa said.