City Hall says Kangundo Road fire station opens in November
What you need to know:
- In February, City Hall said that the construction works at the fire station was 75 per cent complete. Last month, Governor Mike Sonko toured the fire station promising to unveil it in the course of the year.
- The fire station is to be equipped with fire engines, ambulances, a borehole for water supply and adequate personnel to run disaster and emergency operations.
City Hall is set to open its Kangundo Road fire station in November, more than 16 months since its construction began.
The construction of the fire station, the third of such facilities, started last year April with the aim of boosting the county government's emergency response in Eastlands area once complete.
OFFICIAL LAUNCH
Nairobi County Disaster Management and Coordination chief officer Ann Mwenda said final touches were being put on the fire station in preparation for its formal launch in November.
"We are ready to launch the new Kangundo Road fire station. The building is complete and we are just doing some final touches on the ground before we officially open it," said Ms Mwenda.
In February, City Hall said that the construction works at the fire station was 75 per cent complete. Last month, Governor Mike Sonko toured the fire station promising to unveil it in the course of the year.
The fire station is to be equipped with fire engines, ambulances, a borehole for water supply and adequate personnel to run disaster and emergency operations.
"The fire station will also have more than 10 fire engines to boost its performance," Ms Mwenda said.
The construction of the Kagundo Road is being financed by the World Bank together with another one in Waithaka area.
Currently, Nairobi County has only two functional fire stations — Khoja fire station along Tom Mboya Street in the Central Business District and another at Industrial Area. The two were built before Kenya got independence in 1963.
The county government also plans to put up at least one fire station in all the 17 constituencies of Nairobi.
Ms Mwenda said that City Hall was in the process of recruiting more firefighters to serve the additional fire stations.
At the moment Nairobi has only 120 trained firefighters, with 11 set to retire at the end of the year and 13 in 2020.
"Currently the fire department has less than 150 firefighters and we want to increase their numbers by recruiting 1, 200 staff, including firefighters and city inspectorates," said Ms Mwenda.
