By Mohamed Ayoub Conteh
People in various parts of Freetown have reported instances of men purporting to work for the Fire Force going into their compounds and threatening residents with arrest and prosecution for cooking in the open. Some of the people who appeared visibly upset told Politico that the lack of kitchen was forcing them to cook outside and, in most cases, use the locally made clay stove commonly called “coal pot”.
They claimed that the Fire Force men would often say that the rising number of fire incidents could not also be unconnected to the use of charcoal pots in the open and would threaten to arrest them.
A good number of them say they were sometimes blackmailed by the officers to give them money to avoid arrest.
Mabinty Sesay, a trader at Portee market in Wellington, said: “They frequently come here and ask us aggressively why we don’t use a kitchen to do our cooking. They say such an act would cause fire outbreak and that coal pot cooking is dangerous to not only the houses but the environment. They demand the sum of Le 30,000 or threaten us with police arrest.”
Adama Conteh, a housewife in the same Wellington area, narrated her own experience: “They came to my house several times recently demanding to see the kitchen and I told them that we don’t have one. I told them that I always cook at my veranda. There was a bitter argument between us. They ordered us to go to the police station and I refused. They told me that when the breeze blows the fire, chances are that it will reach any material and can cause fire outbreak. So to avoid this, they said, I should build a kitchen. The quarrel was settled when we gave them Le 60,000.”
Chief Fire Officer, Ahmed Kamanda Bongay, however explained to Politico that coal pot cooking at home was not the only reason for fire outbreak. Fire outbreak can occur for many reasons and the coal pot is just one issue. Coal pot is a source of heat that can cause fire outbreak’’.
On allegations that his officers were soliciting money from people, Bongay said that was not to his knowledge.
“Collecting money from people is not only unnecessary but also illegal. I was part of the prevention team before I became Chief Fire Officer and I have never taken money or witnessed someone taking money from people. Spreading false news is the order of the day. People say my men are collecting money but that is not true. There is an Act of Parliament on which we operate and it is the 1980 National Fire Service Act’’, he pointed out.
Statistics on fire incidents from the period 1 January to 30 June 2020 show that 348 fire incidents were recorded countrywide. The data for fire incidents per region indicate that 201cases or (58%) of fire incidents were recorded in and around Freetown, 28 or (8%) in the South, 93 (27%) in the North, and 26 (7%) in the East.
198 houses were destroyed by fire in Sierra Leone within the same period. 27 cars/vehicles, 20 shops, three stores, two offices and six EDSA transformers were destroyed by fire incidents, while 21 motor bikes, five electrical poles, one Leister generator, and two workshops were also destroyed by fire incidents. Four hospital fire incidents occurred, and two garages were completely burnt down by fire.
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