GWERU City Council has acquired two state-of-the-art fire engines sourced through the British humanitarian charity organisation Operation Florian, a council official has said.

The fire equipment arrived in the city last week.

Chairperson of the finance committee, Councillor Albert Chirau, told our sister paper Southern Eye that the fire engines were sourced after the municipality paid $30 000 to Operation Florian, which in turn helped in the acquisition of the equipment.

He said the arrival of the fire equipment was a milestone for Gweru, which had been facing challenges with its ageing fire tenders.

“The two fire tenders acquired through the help of Operation Florian is a milestone for us as we had no capacity to deal with fire emergencies because of depleted fire engines,” Chirau
said.

Chirau said the city was now better equipped to deal with fire emergencies.

Last year, 21 vehicles, including three commuter omnibuses, were reduced to shells, as the city’s fire brigade failed to deal with a blaze due to inadequate equipment.