Fire brigade training in Tanzania

The 1.8 million inhabitants are supported by 86 fire stations throughout the city in the event of an emergency. Emergency services are on standby around the clock and can be at the scene within 8 minutes to extinguish fires and save lives.

Only six fire stations are available to protect the approximately 5.4 million inhabitants. As a result, the emergency services in the Tanzanian seat of government, Dar Es Salaam, need up to 30 minutes to reach the scene. This means that the East African comrades usually only have to carry out post-extinguishing work.

Even if the general conditions here are very different: Self-protection and recognising hazards at the scene of an incident is necessary everywhere. For this reason, Tjark Stange, a member of the Hamburg Fire Department, travelled to Africa’s fifth largest country in the summer of 2018 with his comrade Henning Pyrek to improve local public safety as part of development cooperation. Tjark had already spent a year volunteering in East Africa after leaving school. During this time, he trained the volunteer and professional fire brigades based on the German model. Thanks to the connections he has made to date, he has already been able to realise several projects together with the Hamburg Fire Brigade and the „Freundeskreis Hamburg – Dar Es Salaam“.

S-GARD supported this project with a donation of the ADVANCE PROGRESS protective suit. It is important to familiarise people with the functions and protective effects of the personal protective suit. Simply handing out the equipment is pointless. Tjark Stange approached us and asked us for a donation of our protective clothing, which fire brigades in Germany, Austria and Switzerland rely on, in order to organise the training in a practical way. Not only the theoretical explanation of protective clothing is immensely important, but also the demonstration of operations. This includes the correct use of the functions in order to avoid preventable accidents. It also includes the correct tactical approach of the group leader and incident commander at the scene of an incident.
The well-known firefighting adage „life in the situation“ is probably nowhere more impressive than on African soil. The lack of equipment reduces the fire brigade’s operational capability and represents a major difference to the equipment of their German colleagues.

Tjark and his colleague Henning use the fire service regulations as a guideline for dealing with any operations that arise in Africa. This has been adapted to the local conditions. Tjark knows that recognising dangers is essential, because only those who protect themselves can help others.

On their return, the two firefighters were grateful and full of praise for our S-GARD protective clothing. Who knows, it may not be the last time that German protective clothing helps to fight fires in Africa. Because the fact is, there are the same fires everywhere. Tjark Stange knows that the conditions are different and is looking forward to his next project.