An Assessment of Fire Emergency Preparedness among Public Universities in Tanzania.
This study assessed the preparedness of fire emergency among public universities in Tanzania a case of the Open University of Tanzania and University of Dar es Salaam as a result of fire occurrences in different public institutions. The main focus was to assess the community awareness on fire outbreaks and safety responses, examine the programmes for fighting against fire outbreaks; examine availability and functioning of fire fighting gears at the study areas. The study adopted a phenomenological qualitative research design which focused on cross-sectional descriptive approach. Both purposive and random sampling techniques were applied whereby 76 respondents were selected from the facility users. Questionnaires, interviews, FGDs and personal observation were used for the collection of data. Data collected were quantitatively and qualitatively analyzed using SPSS and QDA Miner 4 Lite software respectively. It was finally revealed from the study that fire emergency preparedness was low among the selected universities. This comes as a result of inadequacy of training for facility users, community unawareness on the uses of fire fighting gears, lack of enlightenment for creating community awareness and cautions on fire incidences and poor fire outbreaks management. The study recommended the improvement of integrative fire management preparedness strategies, Public Fire Disaster Awareness (PFDA); the reviews of the laws governing fire fighting and safety and policy formulation to be put into consideration to fight against fire outbreaks.
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