Netherlands’ experts to train our fire-fighters

by Jayampathy Jayasinghe

[email protected]

Thirty-three fire fighters of the newly created Special Responsive Unit (SRU) of the Colombo Fire Brigade are being given a refresher course by two fire fighting experts from the Netherlands who are currently in the country, Colombo Fire Brigade sources told the Sunday Observer.

The fire fighters are being trained on the latest methods of rescue operations such as rescue from high-rise buildings, retrieving persons under collapsed buildings, dealing with hazardous materials and rescuing those from flood affected areas.

Two boats for rescue operations will also be provided by the Netherlands government for this purpose. The batch of 33 fire fighters of the Special Responsive Unit trained earlier in the Netherlands are stationed in the new four-storied building at Roxywatte, Wellawatte.

Meanwhile, the Netherlands government has granted a loan of 30 million Euros of which eight million Euros have been allocated to develop the infrastructure network of the Colombo Fire Brigade and 18 fire fighting units of Provincial Councils under a project initiated by the Minister of Provincial Councils and Local Government, Janaka Bandara Tennakoon.