Fire fighting training courses on the cards

Blantyre City Council has lined up fire fighting training courses for companies and other services providers to run from November 9 to December 4 this year at Civic offices.

In press statement, the Council’s Acting Chief Executive Officer Dr Alfred Chanza says the courses target several sectors and will run for three days.

Says Chanza: “Blantyre City Council Fire and Rescue Service will be conducting first aid fire fighting training courses from 9^th November 2015 to 4^th December 2015.”

“These extremely popular three-day long courses provide participants with a greater awareness and understanding of the threat posed by fire, their personal responsibility in preventing an outbreak and the action to be taken should a fire occur,” he says.

He adds: “The course is presented by experienced City Council Fire Brigade professionals and all participants receive practical hands-on training in basic firefighting techniques as well as interactive training in risks assessment and mitigation.”

Chanza says institutions are advised to choose a relevant course or courses and send the number and names of their nominated participants for each course and that each participant is expected to pay in advance K95 000 per course for three days.

“The courses target all staff, particularly those designated as fire wardens or marshals or any safety officer working in industries, commerce or the public sector institutions,” he says.

Participants are expected to develop confidence in carrying out fire safety responsibilities, have greater awareness of the hazards of fire, acquire knowledge of the combustion process and how fire is spread, have an understanding of what actions to take in the event of fire.

They are also expected to get knowledge of the different types of extinguishers, their uses and the hazards associated with them and have the ability to carry out routine fire safety maintenance checks to comply with relevant legislation apart from tackling small fires with confidence.

The course content will be as follows:

• Combustion principles
• Portable fire extinguishers
• Classes and common cause of fire
• Good housekeeping
• Fire risk assessment
• The roles of Fire Safety Manager and Fire Wardens
• How to spot and mitigate hazards.
• Liquefied Petroleum Gases and Acetylene cylinder incidents
• Motor vehicle fires
• Fire extinguishment practical
• Arson preventive measures
• Highly Flammable Liquids (HFL) liquefied Petroleum Gases regulations
• Fire drill procedures in offices, shops, warehouses, colleges/schools, hotels, hospitals, factories and boarding places and others.

The courses are scheduled as follows:

Course One       :                First Aid Firefighting Training for Shops, Offices, Media, Banks, Colleges, Schools and Security services from 9th November to 11th November 2015.

Course Two       :                First Aid Firefighting Training for Oil installation, Filling Stations and Garages/Workshops from 16th November to 18th November 2015

Course Three     :                 First Aid Firefighting Training for Factories and Warehouses from 23^rd November to 25^th November 2015.

Course Four       :                 First Aid Firefighting Training for Hotels/Motels/Lodges, Hospitals and Restaurants from 2^nd December to 4th December 2015.

For more information, contact Numbers: 0994 441 964/0881 789 366/0884 432 503