The Papua New Guinea Fire Service (PNGFS) will be putting together a funding submission to the National Executive Council for national approach to improving the fire service.
This comes after a series of nine fires in Lae, three of which were in January.
Chief Fire Officer, Isaac Silas, also reaffirmed that an assessment will be carried out this year to establish the fire service’s needs in the industrial city.
The Papua New Guinea fire service exists on the fringes of the governments’ attention except during the times fire emergencies.
It’s then the public and of course the governments start asking why the fire service isn’t able to do its job.
In Lae, the growth of the industrial city has outpaced the growth of the PNGFS.
The city would at least have two more fire stations after 10 years of consistent development.
For instance, the number of tall buildings is increasing but the fire service still makes do with equipment that can handle small fires.
Chief Fire officer, Isaac Silas, says the recent fires in Lae are of great concern. They will take these concerns to the National Executive Council.
A new fire truck will be bought for Lae but will remain at the current fire station until the government makes a decision on putting new fire stations in Lae.
In January, the G4S headquarters in Lae was destroyed in a fire. The same claimed the neighboring warehouse of the Niugni drug wholesale.
Within a few days, the Brian bell Home Center suffered the same fate.
Then the Pelgens warehouse and Datec went down.
While many attacked the fire service, Morobe Governor Kelly Naru, blasted the government over the fire service’s capacity.
This year, there will be what’s called a standard of fire cover assessment which will be done in Lae.
This will determine who many additional fire stations and what kind of equipment will be needed.
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