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Vanuatu Fire Service Failure to Put Out the Fire on 6 May 1998 [1999] VUOM 7; 1999.07 (12 May 1999)

REPUBLIC OF VANUATU

OFFICE OF THE OMBUDSMAN

PUBLIC REPORT

ON THE

VANUATU FIRE SERVICE FAILURE TO PUT OUT THE FIRE ON 6 MAY 1998
AT PARIS SHOPPING,
SNOOPY’S, AU PECHE MIGNON AND
FRANK KING TOURS

12 May 1999

8553/9/07

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PUBLIC REPORT ON THE
VANUATU FIRE SERVICE FAILURE
TO PUT OUT THE FIRE ON 6 MAY 1998
AT PARIS SHOPPING SNOOPY’S AND FRANK KING TOURS

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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PREAMBLE

'Confidence in an unfaithful man in time of trouble is like a broken tooth and a foot out of joint'.

Proverbs 25 v 19

It is a source of regret as well as shame that able-bodied men are obliged to sit around wasting time instead of being regularly drilled in their duties, and carefully ensuring their equipment is in a first class order.

That shame is doubly due when it is considered that ten months later, an equally disgraceful act was repeated when fire consumed totally the building of General Store situated on the same road.

Drastic disciplinary action and review are necessary if the public is to restore any confidence whatever in the Fire Service.

SUMMARY

This reports is about the failure of the Vanuatu Fire Service ('VFS') in putting out the fire in the capital city of Port Vila, which destroyed one building including four (4) shops, namely Paris Shopping, Snoopy’s, a pastry shop, La Tentation, and Frank King Tours on 6 May 1998.

The VFS could not do anything to stop the fire. Their main problem was that they could not get enough water pressure and did not know how to increase it from the main town pipe where they were connecting their hose.

It took 3 minutes to the employee of the private company, UNELCO, managing the town water to increase the water pressure in front of the fire scene once they were asked more than an hour after the beginning of the fire. By that time it was too late.

Two fire trucks arrived at the fire scene within 5 minutes but encountered problems namely:

1. The pressure of water from the hydrant was low;
   

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