Behind The Presidential Curtains: Unanswered Questions on Continued Rwanda Fire Setting
Types Of Fire Extinguisher
Water Fire Extinguishers: The Cheapest And Most Widely Used Fire Extinguishers. Used For Class A Fires. Not Suitable For Class B (Liquid) Fires, Or Where Electricity Is Involved. Foam Fire Extinguishers: More Expensive Than Water, But More Versatile. Used For Classes A & B Fires. Foam Spray Extinguishers Are Not Recommended For Fires Involving Electricity, But Are Safer Than Water If Inadvertently Sprayed Onto Live Electrical Apparatus. Dry Powder Fire Extinguishers: Often Termed The ‘Multi-Purpose’ Extinguisher, As It Can Be Used On Classes A, B & C Fires. Best For Running Liquid Fires (Class B).
Will Efficiently Extinguish Class C Gas Fires, BUT BEWARE, IT CAN BE DANGEROUS TO EXTINGUISH A GAS FIRE WITHOUT FIRST ISOLATING THE GAS SUPPLY. Special Powders Are Available For Class D Metal Fires. Warning: When Used Indoors, Powder Can Obscure Vision Or Damage Goods And Machinery. It Is Also Very Messy. CO2 Fire Extinguishers: Carbon Dioxide Is Ideal For Fires Involving Electrical Apparatus, And Will Also Extinguish Class B Liquid Fires, But Has NO POST FIRE SECURITY And The Fire Could Re-Ignite. Wet Chemical Specialist Extinguisher for Class F Fires For Metal Fires: A Specialist Fire Extinguisher For Use On Class D Fires – Metal Fires Such As Sodium, Lithium, Manganese And Aluminium When In The Form Of Swarf Or Turnings.
Colour Coding Prior To 1st Jan 1997, The Code Of Practice For Fire Extinguishers In The UK Was British Standard 5423, Which Advised The Colour Coding Of Fire Extinguishers As Follows: Water – Red Foam – Cream Dry Powder – Blue Carbon Dioxide (CO2) – Black Halon – Green (Now ‘Illegal’ Except For A Few Exceptions Such As The Police, Armed Services And Aircraft). Which ones of these do the minister want our people to buy? The Rwanda Police had reported that the fires were caused by poor installations. it also suggested that the electricians who worked on installing the electrical lines in hospitals, industries as well as prisons were not qualified. The minister of planning never removed nor attempted to address those hazards even though they already knew that the risks were there.
Those who were responsible for hiring the unqualified electricians are still keeping their jobs and the finger has moved from here to there. Now it is not poor installations but instead some official sources pointed a finger at the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR). The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)-based militants are widely alleged to be implicated in the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi, as well as several bomb and grenade attacks on unarmed civilians in Rwanda from across the border. This cause has finally come to be confirmed as a sabotage plan by the government to tarnish the opposition or the FDLR as suggested by government critics. 
Some of the fires in photos taken by journalists
“It cannot be a coincidence that two correctional facilities can be gutted by fire in one month,” an official at Rwanda Correctional Services, who preferred anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter, told Rwanda Today. “This has to do with work of an insider or an enemy within.” As quoted this time other sources indicate that these fires may have something to do with the insiders. The high street in Kigali known as Mateus and some small scale industries this week were on fire, today three factories burnt and With the fires in Rubavu Prison, the source further revealed that the prison service and intelligence agencies would ensure the cause of the fire was established. Unconfirmed reports were reportedly making rounds in Rubavu town alleging that the FDLR were behind the fires. These reports had, however, not been corroborated by officials by press time.
Three inmates were confirmed dead in an inferno that recently swept through Rubavu Rwanda Correctional Services (RCS) facility, just weeks after another prison in Muhanga district was gutted by fire. In an interview with the state broadcaster Radio Rwanda, Mayor of Rubavu Sheikh Hassan Bahame said the three died in the blaze while 40 others sustained injuries during a stampede that ensued. According to sources at the scene, the fire broke out at around 4:30pm in one section of the facility. Eric Ntakirutimana, the acting director of the prison, told a local news outlet that he could not immediately confirm the cause of the fire. Residents of the district looked on as the correctional facility, which is located on a hill overlooking Lake Kivu, was consumed by the inferno. The picturesque prison, considered one of the new, model correctional facilities in the country, holds more than 3,000 inmates. Investigations concluded that during fumigation some liquid chemicals got into contact with bare, live electrical wires, causing a short-circuit that sparked off the blaze. The management of the facility, which also houses more than 3,000 prisoners, struggled to keep the excess inmates after a large section of it was destroyed.
Prisoners were distributed in Mpanga and Huye prisons, which were already battling congestion. So how do we relate the outcome of investigations with fire extinguishers? Are the fire extinguishers capable of stopping fires from an equipped force such as FDLR if they were to use fires? Are Poor installations that are done by unqualified electricians facilitated by FDLR? One fire extinguisher is worth £25-56, how can a Rwandan average Citizen afford this amount? When we spoke to an expert in Rwandan politics he related to the fires to Kagame and his men’s sabotage plans, ‘’whenever they aim to benefit on something’’, He stated that the government of Rwanda looks for interests any occasions, and now they have quickly organised a tender to an insider in order to trade in fire extinguishers. Meaning that on average if every Rwandan home has four people, Rwanda with a population of 11 million three million homes will need fire extinguishers Since every home must have two fire extinguishers, that means we will need a procurement of 6 million fire extinguishers. Therefore RPF is looking at £50x3m=£150,000,000 project, with the fires waiting for more investigations to be verified. The Rwandan leaders are trying to benefit in every incident. Some of the sources point a finger at President Paul Kagame’s tactics of setting fires to blame it on opponents, referring to the grenade attacks and the sabotages done during the RPA war and within the previous years.
They went on to explain that these fires were planned and ordered by Kagame who also ordered a lot of incidents involving fires in Uganda just to blame them on opposition in the end. In conclusion let’s look at the reasons why people set fire without thinking of the consequences, and exactly with no remorse and empathy about the pain and anxiety plus loss experienced by those involved in the fire. According to the American Heritage Dictionary, pyromania is “the uncontrollable impulse to start fires.
” This definition seems simple enough, but it’s often difficult to apply when diagnosing an individual’s fire-setting behaviour and corresponding psychiatric treatment. There are many reasons that a person might set fires, and the difficulty comes in separating those who truly have an impulse to set fires from those who display criminal behaviours or other psychological disorders. To address this issue, the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) has set forth the following criteria for a diagnosis of pyromania:
- The individual must have set fires deliberately and purposefully on more than one occasion.
- The individual must be tense or exhibit outward emotional behaviours (facial expressions, changes in voice, excitement) before setting fires.
- The individual must be interested in, curious about, fascinated with and/or attracted to fires and their situations.
- The individual must experience pleasure, tension relief or gratification after setting fires or watching fires and their aftermaths.
- Other psychological disorders cannot better account for the individual’s fire-setting behaviour (manic episodes, antisocial behaviours)
- The individual has no other motivations for setting the fire, like:
- Financial gain (collecting insurance)
- Expressing social or political ideas
- Revenge or anger
- Hiding other criminal activity (concealing a murder or theft)
- Improving his or her living circumstances
- Responding to delusions or hallucinations
Noble Marara
