UGANDA POLICE FIRE BRIGADE
P.O.BOX 3549 Kampala Tel 042 1222, 041 342222/3 fax: 041342222

INTRODUCTION
At present the unit is composed of eight fire stations throughout the country namely: - Kampala, Jinja, Mbale, Tororo, Entebbe, Masaka, Mbarara and Hoima. All these fire stations can be easily reached on :

                       
Jinja                0434120050
Mbale             0454433224
Tororo             0454 450099
Entebbe           0414 321532
Masaka            0481421312
Mbarara           0485420036
Hoima             0465440663

HISTORY OF THE BRIGADE
The Uganda police fire brigade was established in 1921 with the primary objective of providing fire fighting services to the growing cotton industry in the then British protectorate. At that time cotton stores and ginneries were becoming bigger and fires became harder to handle without expert fire fighting assistance owing to t he combustibility of cotton hence the need for a fire fighting unit.
The administration of the unit was done by the provincial police commander for Buganda who was directly responsible for all activities of the unit. It was located at the present Bank of Uganda location, while the firemen were residing at Nsambya police barracksThe firemen at that time were regular policemen without any formal skills in the science of firefighting and worse still they were of advanced age thereby compounding the problems of the service.
The unit did not have any firefighting vehicles but had trolleys that used to carry the equipment to the scene in the event of an emergency.
As the cotton industry expanded, along with the starting of other industries, Busoga became quite a busy region and this led to establishment of the Jinja fire station in 1934 after the first fire fighting vehicles were brought into the country.
Operations went on albeit with half hearted success owing to the lack of formally trained firemen.
In 1953, the station was moved from Kampala road to the current Goodshed near Uganda Railways while the construction of the proposed permanent fire station was starting to take place.
At the same time , the unit received its first professionally trained fire officers (three in number) from London with one of them, Captain Richard Denyer becoming the first Chief fire Officer thereby detaching the unit from the direct command of the Buganda province. The other two, Donald Flint and Gordon Murray were entrusted with recruitment and formal training of young men and women thus equipping the unit with more competent manpower.
By 1957, the districts of Mbale, Tororo and Soroti had become cotton producing strongholds warranting protection against fire accidents and therefore fire stations were opened in these districts bringing the total number of fir stations in the country to five. Each of these stations was equipped with up to date fire fighting equipment thus making them very efficient fire stations.
1958 saw the moving of the unit which was at this time being called the Uganda fire and rescue service to its present day location hence firmly establishing itself in the country. In 1967, the service changed its name to Uganda Police Fire Brigade.
As the country attained its independence in 1962 the unit went ahead with strengthening its operations by recruiting young men and women who were trained into professional firefighters and then taken overseas for further specialization. Several officers were trained at the Nagpur fire service college India, the Lancashire fire training college in Britain, and other countries where short courses in firemanship were attended. By 1970, the fire service although small was highly effective and efficient.
The 1971 political transformation in Uganda heralded a dark era in the existence of the service. Several highly trained professional firefighters disappeared through state managed kidnappings. This led to general demoralization of the remaining firemen that culminated into fleeing into exile for many of them.
Political interference in the day to day activities of the service saw the haphazard promotion of firemen without reference to their proficiency and experience in firefighting. This caused mistrust among the service men and totaled to inefficiency and ineffectiveness in the service. By 1979, the service was on its knees and during the civil war in this year; it was dealt its final blow when it was thoroughly looted including all firefighting equipment, appliances and documents. Several stations and branches sere closed in that by 1980 only Kampala and Jinja were operational and even then minimally.
After a spate of several fire occurrences in the country, in 1987 brand new fire appliances and firefighting equipment were procured leading to the rejuvenation of the Jinja and Kampala fire stations. The Mbale fire station was reopened in 1988 followed by establishment of a fire station in Masaka in 1995 and Mbarara in 1998. The Tororo fire station was only reopened in 2003. In the same year, through the efforts of the then mayor of Entebbe, the municipality received a donation of a fire truck from a sister city in Sweden but lacked professional firemen to man the truck thereby requesting the service to establish a station in Entebbe.
The fire appliance fleet acquired in 1989 served the country until 2004 when a couple of brand new fire tenders were acquired greatly boosting the operational effectiveness of the Kampala fire station leading to the opening of the Hoima fire station in 2005.
The brigade work force has come from a few aged ex-service men in 1921 to young highly trained energetic professional firefighters at all time high of 134 men and women.
The rescue function of the brigade has been one of the most challenging duties owing to the few specialized firemen in this field. However in liaison with overseas partners, this ability is being developed on a yearly basis where firemen are trained abroad in various skills thereby raising the available manpower.

DUTIES OF THE BRIGADE

OPERATIONS OF THE BRIGADE
The operational activities of the service are mainly categorized into two sections, that is, fire fighting and special services.

FIRE FIGHTING
In this activity, a fire response team physically engages in fire suppression, salvage and investigation. This is a very demanding task that requires total determination andcourage.

SPECIAL SERVICES
This activity combines all those emergencies that are not fire and these are as varied as the activities the citizens do. Among these are rescue of lives, recovery of valuable property, retrieval of dead bodies, handling of hazardous materials and chemical spillages and so many others.

FIRE PREVENTION
Fire prevention is a very important activity to the brigade and it is taken seriously. Among the fire prevention activities we have;