Rwanda National Police

A group of 65 pupils from Path to Success International School in Kimihurura Sector, Gasabo District, on Thursday visited the Rwanda National Police (RNP) headquarters, Fire and Rescue Brigade in Kacyiru, where they were given basic skills in firefighting.

The pupils who were accompanied with their school teaching staff during the visit where they were told of the massive damages that can be caused by fire outbreaks and how to prevent such accidents from happening.

This is the second time pupil from the same school are visiting the Fire and Rescue brigade in space of less than a month.

Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Jean Baptiste Seminega, the Commanding Officer of Fire and Rescue Brigade, who received the pupils, asked them to be Rwanda National Police’s goodwill ambassadors in the quest to educate the public about prevention of fire outbreaks.

Seminega told the children that it’s a prerequisite for every family to have a fire extinguisher as a preventive measure but also pointed out that in case someone can’t afford it, they could use sand, soil or water to put out a fire.

He also appealed to school authorities to call Police for timely intervention on toll free lines 111, 112, or 0788311120, 0788311224, 0788311657 and 0788311335, in case they have spotted fire incidents.

Pupils were shown 12 modern firefighting trucks with various capacities including the sky-lift which has capacity to combat fire up 20th floor of storied buildings.

After demonstrations on how to put out fire, Dinah Asaba, one of the teachers commended RNP for its continued efforts in ensuring security in school environment by reaching out to pupils and students on different themes including firefighting, gender-based-violence and drug abuse among others.

“Although they are young, they still need to learn preventive measure; its always good to equip the society with such skills irrespective of the age group. Such knowledge helps them to grow up understanding the negative consequences of fire outbreaks, so they do not start fires carelessly,” Asaba said.

Police continuously offers trainings to both officers and the members of the public in order to increase their general knowledge and skills on how to avert fire outbreaks.

RNP has so far trained over 2,200 people on firefighting including employees of government institutions, as well as private sector players in hotels, bars, night clubs, commercial institutions petrol stations and schools.