PNG Fire Service

The acting Chief Fire Officer for the PNG Fire Services, Bill Roo, in a recent trip to Sydney to attend the Australasia Fire Authorities Conference, on the 4^th to the 7^th, signed the MoU with the Queensland Fire & Emergency Services acting Commissioner, Michael Wassing.

The deal was inked by both parties on 5^th September 2017.

Roo said this was done in preparation to deliver a safe APEC 2018.

Fire service lead investigator, Gabriel Paulus told Loop PNG that a full investigation has been done and completed.

However, Paulus said the full report will be released by the Chief of Fire Service, Bill Roo by this afternoon or tomorrow the latest.

He explains that he would not release any findings until unless the Chief of Fire has been briefed and releases details thereafter.

Meantime, Chief of Fire, Bill Roo upon being contacted confirmed this, saying he will release investigative findings after he has been briefed by his lead investigator.

PNG Fire Service Chief, Bill Roo says that investigators have gone over the initial fire site and have a rough estimate of where the fire started.

He says that for now investigators are handing out interview sheets and carrying out site inspections in and around the fire sites.

Roo says that for now the residents will be interviewed to establish a timeline of events leading up to the fire and after.

He would not disclose the initial cause of fire stating only that this has yet to be established as investigations continue.

This is the message from the PNG Fire Service, after a child tragically died in a fire at Badili on Sunday.

The Port Moresby residential building, which was once a shop, caught fire at around 2pm.

While the cause of the Badili fire is yet to be established, Acting Chief Fire Officer, Bill Roo, raised concerns about buildings that have had their class of occupancy changed to another without complying with proper processes prescribed in the Building Act (Regulations) chapter 301 or the PNG fire code.  

The Port Moresby residential building, which was once a shop, caught on fire on Sunday, 4^th June, 2017, sometime after 2pm.

Acting Deputy Chief Fire Officer of Operations, Patrick Russell, was dismayed that despite PNG Fire Service’s continuous fire awareness campaign programs, there are people still continuing to be indifferent about fire safety.

The investigative report was released this morning at the Fire Service Headquarters in Port Moresby.

Acting Chief Fire Officer, Bill Roo, together with investigating officer, Inspector Passingan Token, released the report revealing that the fires involving Papindo and Johnson’s Pharmacy buildings happened at about the same time.

However, they were unrelated to the Gutpla kaibar that went up in flames the previous afternoon (March 23).

Boroko Fire Station Commander, Superintendent Leo Ovia confirmed with Loop PNG that an investigating team has already been set up and are looking into the root cause of how the fire started.

Ovia said the fire service is confident that last week’s fire which had started on Thursday was completely extinguished before they withdrew from the fire scene.

He said the investigating team will be looking into all possible details that might be related to the cause of last week’s fire.

Julie Alo, from Enga Province, would have lost a family member as well, if it weren’t for quick-thinking neighbours.

Alo and her two children were standing outside the house, feeding a duck, when her three-year-old alerted her to the flames. This was between 7.35 and 7.40am.

She ran back to the burning home to check up on her family members, noted that they had all escaped, then backed her car out into the street.