With a few days before the lapse of a deadline issued by the Ministry of Disaster Management and Refugee Affairs (Midmar) for all public buildings in the country to comply with fire safety regulations, most complexes in Kigali are yet to be fully compliant.

This is according to independent spot checks carried out during the course of November by officials from the ministry and Rwanda National Police ahead of the deadline.

The regulations, issued under the Prime Minister’s instructions in July, seek to prevent fire outbreaks at public buildings, public spaces, national parks, in forests, as well as transport and storage facilities.

Under the instructions, any public building or other public places shall have, at a minimum, the following fire-fighting equipment: a fire alarm system with an alarm bell on each floor; smoke detectors and sprinklers on each floor; a fire extinguisher every 50 metres on each floor; hose reels on each floor; closed circuit television cameras and a control room; and a lightning conductor.

The installations are also to be inspected after every three years by law enforcing agencies, which will be ready to hand sanctions to non-compliers.

However, the spot check that was carried out as part of the Disaster Reduction Week in some establishments in Kigali revealed that most buildings were yet to fully comply with the instructions.

Buildings, both private and public, were found to be partially complaint with most of them lacking specific equipment or having faulty equipment, according to officials.

At the Kigali City Market, the water pump was found too weak to feed fire hose reels in up floors while the CCTV was found unable to provide quality images for the full control of the building.

Fantastique Restaurant, located in downtown Kigali, opposite Kigali City Tower, was found with only one narrow door for entry and exit.

At King Faisal Hospital, Rwanda, most fire extinguishers had passed their dates of refill or replacement.

A common fault in most of the buildings checked, including the complex that houses Midimar and two other ministries, was out of date fire extinguishers. Others had non-functioning equipment like cameras and fire detectors.

Jean Baptiste Nsengiyumva, the director of Risk Reduction and Preparedness Unit at Midimar, told The New Times last week that they were currently conducting inspections across the country to see the level of compliance and were raising awareness and pointing out areas of non-compliance.

Nsengiyumva could not readily divulge statistics of the level of compliance to the instructions in the country or in the city, saying inspection was still ongoing.

He said it was understandable that most government institutions had not fully complied as they relied on funding from the government to execute such plans.

"When the institutions were issued, most of the institutions had already submitted their plans of action for the year to the Ministry of Finance for financial allocation. What we can do now is ask them to raise the issue during the mid-term budget review to make it possible to access such equipment,” Nsengiyumva said.

Focus on training

The risk reduction official said they had turned their focus on training and capacity building in fire safety management in the institutions, adding that the training would ensure effectiveness once the equipment was acquired.

The training, he said, included sensitisation of the need to have their properties insured against disasters like fire.

"The trainings are being conducted with the help of the national police and began by training focal points in institutions who will then train their fellow employees,” Nsengiyumva said.

The official added that the focal points would also be informed on the acceptable standards of the equipment to be allowed by the Rwanda Bureau of Standards.

He noted that the general level of fire and disaster preparedness was better than it was a few months ago when there was a bout of fire outbreaks in Kigali and across the country, which among others, gutted two prison facilities.

The Risk Reduction and Preparedness Unit is also receiving reports of building owners and managers on challenges encountered in the process of trying to comply with the rules.

However, private building managers said that their reasons for not fully complying were resource constraints as the equipment and installations were costly.

Speaking to The New Times on condition that his building is not named, Fidele Nsenga, who manages a commercial complex in Kimironko, Gasabo District, said the period given was insufficient to secure funds for the necessary upgrade.

In a recent interview with this newspaper, Ignatius Mugabo, the managing director of Mugolds International, a private firm that specialises in fire and risk management, said as much as the regulations were long overdue, caution should be observed when attempting to adhere with the instructions.

He said building owners need to conduct an assessment of the needs of a building and equip early to avoid ending up in panic buy of fire management systems that could prove useless.

Mugabo urged building owners to take the instructions seriously as they would lower the amounts paid against fire insurance among other benefits.