28 Oct 2015

Pilot of the Mini Fire Brigade kicks off in Bangladesh

by GIDRM

The German Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development Dr. Gerd Müller together with Bangladesh’s Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmend has laid the foundation stone of the Mini Fire Brigade at Jinnat Complex of the DBL Group in Gazipur on Wednesday, the 7th of October 2015. The DBL Group supports the pilot of the Mini Fire Brigade as a cooperation partner and provides land, facilities and volunteers. During the unveiling ceremony of the plaque, the fire fighting vehicle that was specifically designed for the Mini Fire Brigade was received in Bangladesh.

The Mini Fire Brigade is a joint initiative by the Global Initiative on Disaster Risk Management (GIDRM) of the Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and its partners, the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH and the Bangladesh Fire Service and Civil Defense (BFSCD). Its main purpose is to both increase fire prevention efficacy and to significantly improve reaction time in emergency response in the Kashimpur-Konabari industrial cluster in Gazipur. This approach will benefit 48 factories with around 65,000 employees in the industry cluster and the surrounding communities.

The Mini Fire Brigade is embedded in the programme “Promotion of Social and Environmental Standards in the Industry (PSES)” that GIZ is implementing in Bangladesh on behalf of the BMZ.

Dr. Gerd Müller was accompanied by Hans-Joachim Fuchtel, Parlamentary State Secretary to the BMZ along with 17 other delegates from Germany to the plaque unveiling ceremony. Representatives from DBL Group, the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Ministry for Labor and Employment as well as Ali Ahmed Khan, the General Director of BFSCD and numerous companies were also present at the ceremony.

Cover photo: © Christian Poschmann