The end of the Ethiopian month Meskerem had kept Addis Abeba’s Fire and Sudden Accidents Prevention and Control Agency extremely busy. In a span of two days three fire accidents had occurred in the capital.
Menalesh Terra, Mercato’s junkyard market, which is not restricted to vehicle spare parts but every kind of appliance, equipment and plastic material known to the city’s residents, was the first to burst in flames on the evening of October 8,2012 at 8pm. Around 60 shops were burnt down during this accident and damages totaled 4.5 million Br according to police reports.
At 11pm that same evening, a fire started at a furniture factory, on a 500sqm compound at Meri CMC in Bole District. Most of the city’s fire trucks, tied up at Menalesh Terra had to rush to this site to put the fire out. By this time the place was completely burnt, causing damages worth 4.3 millionBr.
Another accident followed the next day, this time back at Addis Ketema District, in the slum residence area commonly known as American Gebi. Fire had consumed seven adjacent residences before the fire truck could reach and unroll its hose in the back alleyway which is inaccessible for vehicles.
The Agency did not have any fatalities in those two days, having managed to contain the accident within a small space. But it still had not managed to garner the gratitude of those that had lost property during the fire. Instead most had been discontented at what they say is the slowness of the response by the fire agency.
This discontent has reached extreme heights at Menalesh Terra, causing some of those in the crowd that had gathered around the accident zone, to throw stones at the fire truck from Addis Ketema district. The driver was at the receiving end of this and had sustained some injuries, according to two firefighters from the District.
The misunderstanding between the Agency and those affected by the series of fires is a pointer, to the structural and economic challenges the city faces in terms of providing basic municipal services, including protection against fire accidents.
Eshetu Alemar, a shop owner at Menalesh is one of those who are frustrated with the fire Agency. His was one of the sixty small shops, burnt to the ground at Menalesh Terra.He had used his shop to sell used juicers, and other plastic appliance.
Eshetu was called from his home in Alem Bank on the ill fated day just as the fire started, and had rushed back to Mercato. By then, only two of the shops on his row were on fire at the other end.
“My shop had not yet caught fire when I arrived, and fire trucks from Addis Ketema District, were there. But they were just sitting in the truck not doing anything,” Eshetu told Fortune. “It is very hard watching my shop burn because I felt like they could have done something”
Eshetu says the only response he got from the driver was that he could not make a move before receiving orders.
Although Eshetu had managed to save some of the material he had kept on the rooftop, his loss had amounted to 100,000Br.
His frustration is echoed by the nighttime security guard and the police officer present when the fire had occurred. Around 310 shops at Menalesh including the 60 that had burnt had previously organized themselves into Chid Terra SC, to redevelop the area around nine years ago.
The association has hired nightly security guards to secure the area at night, and make sure that the lights are turned off and shops properly closed. At the time when everybody was helping, it was the Fire Agency that came unprepared, Amare Kenaw, head of security at Chid Terra, told Fortune.
In the beginning two fire trucks had come, but did not have enough water and therefore had to leave. As a result two or three houses that could have been saved were ruined, according to him.
The firefighters could have been better prepared, agrees Eshete Azenew, constable, member of the Addis Ketema District Police.
“The first house that burnt was made up of aluminium sheets, which do not burn easily,” he opined. “This could have bought them more time to put the fire out before it spread,”
In the end fire trukcs from other districts including Arada and Bole came and put the fire out.
It is with a completely different lens however, that the Agency views the situation.
“It is understandable that people will be disappointed if they lose property because of the fire.” Alene Gebru, Commander, the Agency’s manager told Fortune.
“However, fire hazard problems are exacerbated not because of the negligence of the Agency, but because of infrastructure limitation and lack of awareness by the public.”
Either because of frustration or an eagerness to help the public can sometimes get in the way of the firemen’s work, according to Alene.
There are many things to consider before a fireman decides to hose down a fire. They have to make sure that the electricity in the area is off, determine the extent of the fire, its cause, and the direction it is spreading.
These things may take time at first, but they are measures that would later help contain the fire better.
“Sometimes people see us spraying at the side of the fire, than facing it head on,” Getahun Tolosa, manager of the Addis Ketema fire fighting branch explained. “This is to stop it from spreading. But people think we are just loitering or wasting time” he told Fortune.
It has hard to explain this process through the commotion, as emotions ran high during accidents and people get frustrated.
At Menalesh Terra, the Addis Ketema truck did not have enough water and had to go in search of nearby hydrants to fill its tank.
“Some of the hydrants in the area were low pressure so he had to get water from a farther location.” Getahun told Fortune. There are 42 hydrants laid out by the Addis Abeba Water and Sanitation Authority (AAWSA) in Addis Ketema District.
The fact that it took 45 minutes to cut off electric supply also added to the delay, according to Getahun.
“The commotion at the area did not help us get to the problem in time as in the end the crowd formed a mob and took the hose, in an unwanted direction,” Alene told Fortune. “People should be aware that we are all working on the same team, and should harmonize our efforts.”
The lack of awareness is even more magnified when it comes to the three digit phone number, 939, that the public can access for free to call for help in case of emergency accidents.
At the Agency located near Giorgis roundabout, in Arada District there are six landlines to respond to callers who dial this number.
Frivolous use of the number, to make prank calls, shout profanities, or simply kill time, is stunningly high. The Agency gets a minimum of 1,620 and maximum of 2,040 frivolous calls in the span of one day, according to Solomon Mekonen, communications director at the agency.
Compared to this the number of appropriate calls is a paltry 90 at a minimum and a maximum of 135. And this is factoring in calls to ask general information about the Agency’s operations, and those that are redirected to other government institutions to get the appropriate service.
Dereje Muzeyen, an Agency veteran that now handles calls and dispatch says that he gets many surprising calls from pranksters.
“I have been treated as a fortune teller, a provider of mobile credit, and the target of many jokes while handling dispatch operations,” he told Fortune.“What would you say to some one abusing an accident hotline just to ask you ‘is my marriage meant to last?’”
When Fortune visited the call centre on Wednesday last week for thirty minutes the phones had rang non-stop. However, only one appropriate call was made by a lady who was in labour.
The Agency sees no way to put a halt to this,except to create awareness and teach people to appropriately use resources.
To this end, it has recently arranged a small television drama, which depicts a young man who had previously abused the line, but regretted it very much when the Agency comes to the rescue of his ailing wife that was in labour at a later date, according to Solomon.
Lack of enough capacity has also been another roadblock affecting the performance of the Agency.
After the fire at CMC erupted, it had taken 45 minutes for the fire trucks to arrive as all the equipment have been put to use at Menalesh Terra, according to Kibrom Fikre, the son of the furniture owner. Even if the Bole District Fire Department had not been occupied, it would still take sometime to arrive as the distance is long.
“They have done the best they could, but had they been nearer and had more fire trucks to spare, a lot of the damage could have been saved,” Kibrom told Fortune.
The Agency currently has eight fire trucks, twelve ambulances, and three fire truck vehicles that can be used for tall buildings and one emergency vehicle, according to its website.
The capacity for the fire trucks vary. Some can hold 6,000 litres of water and 1,000 litres of foam, which is used when there are flammable or chemical materials around. Others have a lower capacity carrying only 1,500 litre of water and 500 litres of foam.
In neighbouringNairobi, the numbers are much different. The city has 57 fire trucks and a budget amounting to 298 million Br, much higher than the 68.4 million Br budget allocated for the Fire and Sudden Accidents Prevention and Control Agency in 2011/12 fiscal year.
The Nairobi Fire Department has 23 sub stations and seven main stations to serve its four million residents.
Addis Abeba’s 3.1 million inhabitants however, get seven branches in total to serve the ten districts and 116 weredas of the capital.
One branch, Kolfe Keranio is not yet very active in emergency aid, focusing instead on pre accident awareness programs, further adding the pressure on six of the branches. The Addis Ketema branch of the Agency for example has to cover 33 weredas, some included within the district and others in theterritoryofKolfe KeranioDistrict. Currently, there are 283,472 inhabitants in Addis Ketema District.
“Considering the fact that this is an old institution, our capacity is low.” Alene the Agency’s manager told Fortune.
“However, we are taking steps to increase our capacity,”
Indeed the Agency has recently made a deal to bring in six fire trucks and additional cranes and equipment at a cost of 50 millionBr.This cost is double our operating budget, Alene stated.
The capacity of the new fire trucks is higher than what we had before, Solomon, the Agency’s communication officer told Fortune.
Four of the trucks will have the capacity to hold 6,000 litres of water, 1,000 litres of foam and 500kg of powder, while two of them can hold 8,500 litres of water, 1,500 litres of foam.
But an increase in capacity is nothing without appropriate infrastructure. Lack of appropriate road access, and overcrowded traffic has been a problem for the Agency. The fire fighters at Menalesh, had additionally criticized for arriving late, even though they come from Mesalemia, a nearby neighbourhood.
“There is a lot of traffic activity,” a firefighter at the district told Fortune. “Sometimes even the sirens do not work, as other private vehicles will hurry past a clear passage we manage to get after sounding the siren, instead of making way for us.”
The Agency says it is upto the city administration to provide such infrastructure to enable it to operate. In addition slum areas like Menalesh Terra and American Gibi, are by themselves prone to fire hazards due to the construction of the houses in close proximity and use of flammable construction materials like wood.
“The city has tried to address such problems through its revision of the city’s master plan,” Abebaw Sinte, director of the city’s urban planning institute told Fortune.
The fire on a private furniture factory at Meri CMC, started four hours after the accident in Menalesh Terra, and completely destroyed the house.
Fire trucks had trouble accessing residences at American Gibe as the area was congested and there were no passage big enough to accommodate vehicles. The truck instead used a long hose to put the fire out.
Since Emperor Menilik II and Empress Taitu, founded the city, its master plan had been revised nine times. Most of the plan has been made by the British and Italians, either during their occupation of the city, or after being invited by the government.
A photo exhibition, at the Cooperation for Urban Mobility in the Developing World (CODATU) conference organised last week at the exhibition centre shows Addis Abeba’s varying masterplans. The photos depict the progressive expansion of the city. Although fast increasing in size it has yet to make ways on redevelopment projects.
In the current administration the master plan is supposed to be revised every ten years. The current master plan which was prepared in 2001/02 had set aside 2000ha of land mostly from inner city areas like Addis Ketema, Kirkos and Arada, for redevelopment purposes.
“The plan was to provide road access in areas where there are none and widen the roads or provide alternative routes for traffic congested areas.” Abebaw told Fortune. “The plan also aimed to rebuild slum areas in a manner that presented fewer fire risks.”
The ambitious plan has even set aside space for green areas and playgrounds in redeveloped residences, to avoid crowd congestion.
Implementation of the plan however has been slow. Although both Menalesh and American Gibi had been set aside for redevelopment, no work had been started yet.
The current plan is now being revised and additional plans have been put in. These include building the capacity for the Fire and Sudden Accidents Prevention and Control Agency.
The plan envisions building an additional 16 sub stations in districts and localities susceptible to fire hazards; to build a branch in Gulele District and increase the number of fire hydrants to 274 from 164 existing ones.
The plan also recommends for the Agency to give its approval in the construction of any building concerning fire safety. All these however, are a long way off for the capital city for which fire and other hazardous accidents are growing year by year.
“Until we can reach a higher capacity our choice is to use our resources carefully and provide service to the best of our ability,” Alene has concluded.
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