Hanuabada fire disaster

The National Letters

MANY people just don’t understand how and why fire fighters do their job.
Fire fighters attend to calls where there is an incident of fire burning properties or bush.
They attend in order to contain the fire and to protect properties that are near the fire or people who are trapped inside a burning zone.
The fire that ravaged Hanuabada on Saturday, Aug 19, was a one of a kind. What happened, however, was disappointing, with people harassing the fire fighters.
There were men pulling the hoses away for them to fight the fire themselves.
That was immature.
These people should have assessed the reality of the situation before striking on innocent agents who were only trying to do their job.
The reality was that:

  • The fire was not caused by the PNG Fire Service;
  • the cause of the fire was unknown. Maybe someone knew but that person was not telling anyone;
  • the houses were old and the timber was dry
  • The wind was strong and; and, caused the fire to spread quickly.

The dry timber, the wind and the plastic and containers lying all over that area helped fuel the fire and made it spread to the other houses quickly.
The people of the village knew all these but they still blamed the firefighters as if the firefighters started the fire.
We all must respect the agents who do risky work for us.
My sincere apologies to the people affected.
Sorry for losing all you had.

Nono,
Motuan