Jose Ngunjiri: Fire survivor risking life to save others

Jose got severe burns on his left hand, severing his fingers. The left side of the face and arm also still bear the scars of the traumatic burn.

Now 43 years old, Jose is a firefighter and fire safety advocate. Looking back, he says the accident from his childhood could have ushered him towards this career path.

During his advocacy missions, he trains nannies and househelps on fire prevention and why they should first call the fire station before calling their bosses. He also features on children's shows Akili Kids and Tochi & Jose Fire Safety.

Jose Ngunjiri during a fire rescue incident. [Wangeci Kanyeki, Standard]

"Firefighters in Kenya and across the world put their lives on the line in order to protect lives and property in their community. In order for firefighters to succeed in doing their jobs they must be properly trained and equipped to do so. Firefighters in Kenya and much of Sub-Saharan Africa do not have sufficient or appropriate personal protective equipment, firefighting tools or firefighting apparatus to respond to fires and other emergencies. There have been strides made to increase personnel and equipment across Kenya in the last 10 years, however, more support is needed within Kenya at the county level to address the deficit," Ms Moore says.

In 2019, Jose as he is commonly known, organised a stair climb event that attracted 101 firefighters across Kenya. He also does advocacy fire safety training in informal settlements in Nairobi to educate the communities on fire safety.

"Five years ago, we would receive 6-7 fire reports monthly from Mathare Valley and, currently, the fires have reduced to one or at most two fire incidents in a month. This is largely because the trained community fire champions are able to contain the fire, call the fire stations in good time and protect firefighters and their fire trucks from being stoned when they arrive on the site of a fire," Jose says.

Human negligence is attributed to the cause of 90 per cent of all fires. Common causes of fires at the household level are caused by human error which include but are not limited to drunkenness, domestic violence, leaving cook stoves unattended, electrical overload and illegal electrical installations as well as leaving flammable items near a fire. Ground-level cooking is a major cause of burn injuries for children under 5 years old who often get hot water or tea burns while playing near the fire.

To raise fire safety awareness in the public communities, Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH), in collaboration with Burns Society of Kenya a non-governmental organisation, bring together several disaster management first-responder stakeholders including the National Disaster Management Unit - NDMU, Kenya National Fire Brigade Association, Nairobi County Fire, Kenya Police, Africa Fire Mission, Kenya Red Cross Society, St John Ambulance Kenya, Crisis Control East Africa, Ethnomed Healthcare amongst others.

The group is set to hold the Fire Safety and Burns Awareness Week from Septe

mber 11-15 to sensitise the public on fire prevention safety tips at home.

Jose says that firefighters go through post-traumatic stress disorder and do not talk about their experiences so as not to relieve the losses of lives and property they witnessed at a fire event.However, other than a debrief session called the 'fire table' where over 100 firefighters from Africa meet online every Wednesday to talk openly about their feelings, most firefighters have no psycho-social support.

"The governments in Africa should designate psychologists to give therapy to the firefighters to take care of their emotional and mental well-being and also give them a risk allowance and insurance cover," he says.