All the National Fire Authority (NFA) stations Fiji wide are currently conducting fire hydrant checks within their respective area of operations.
To-date NFA firefighters have already inspected 1167 fire hydrants and firefighters have come across a number of cases where underground fire hydrants are totally covered with rubbish. In some cases, firefighters have reported that some parts of the underground fire hydrant have also gone missing.
Accumulations of rubbish on top of the fire hydrants affect firefighting and NFA is seeking the assistance of the members of the community not to pile rubbish on top of the underground fire hydrants.
“It is very important for firefighters to access these fire hydrants in case of fire and any delay caused by clearing rubbish to access the fire hydrants severely affects firefighting,” NFA CEO John O’Connor said.
The NFA CEO is pleading with the members of the community to look after the fire hydrants in their area properly. These hydrants are marked by white post near the road side.
“NFA always target to provide the best level of service to our people, but we need their assistance in such cases,” Mr O’Connor said.
“Fire hydrants are located around the country to assist the firefighters to fight fires effectively and if the fire hydrant is tempered with rubbish and other forms of wastes piled on it, then it makes our job very difficult, firstly, to locate the fire hydrant and to clear it to allow our firefighters to connect these hydrants to the NFA hydrant stands and to the trucks.
“This affects our firefighting capabilities as we have to source water from other static water source when the fire hydrants are not working because of such actions by some members of the community.
“We have to look for the next nearest hydrant or sometimes have to travel quite a distance away from the fire scene to refill water in our trucks and continue with the firefighting operations and this impacts on the effectiveness of our firefighting.
“Our plea to all the members of the public is to take good care of the fire hydrant and its surroundings which will enable our firefighters to carry out their duty successfully during a fire,” Mr O’Connor said.
NFA and WAF in a joint project are also installing new fire hydrants in identified high risk area around towns and cities. We thank members of the community who having been making submissions in relation to the installation of fire hydrant in their respective areas.
PRESS RELEASE