By Melisa Munzvandi
THE border town of Beitbridge is set to host a major national firefighting competition and community safety expo at Dulibadzimu Stadium from 23 to 25 September, organized by the National Industrial Fire Control Association (NIFCA).
The three day event brings together emergency responders, industry professionals, and local residents for high octane tactical challenges paired with interactive public safety outreach. Teams from municipal fire services, government departments, and private industries will face off in live firefighting scenarios, technical search and rescue challenges, and precision drills testing speed and pump operations.
For the local community, the gathering offers significant benefits beyond high energy entertainment. Staging the event at Dulibadzimu Stadium boosts community engagement by giving residents, school pupils, and business owners direct access to practical fire safety awareness, emergency prevention tips, and basic safety education. Local families will get a front row seat to impressive skills displays by top first responders from across the country, showcasing the tactical discipline required in real world crisis response. Furthermore, hosting an event of this scale provides a strong economic and social boost to Beitbridge, lifting local business activity for hospitality and retail providers while fostering civic pride in the municipality’s growing public safety infrastructure.
“To ensure impartial and rigorous competition standards, the challenges will be adjudicated by an in house adjudication panel from the association. The judges will oversee , 23 teams of 20 firefighters participating across various squad categories. Teams will be evaluated based on set standard examinations where the key Criteria, record time tactical execution speed, strict safety protocol adherence, precision pump operation, and team coordination. The panel will score participants on both technical competence and real time decision making under high pressure simulated emergency conditions”, said NIFCA communication and Public relations and business strategist Rose Masayile.
Organized by NIFCA as both a competitive tournament and an educational community programme, the event offers local residents and leaders a dedicated platform for networking, reviewing disaster management strategies, and exploring modern safety technologies.It also offers the local hospitality industry to make an earning as they will be hosting over 500 fire fighters from the Zimbabwe Living industry.
Hosting the tournament marks another major step in strengthening regional emergency response capabilities, following the recent graduation of 21 local firefighters trained in partnership with the Air Force of Zimbabwe. Organizers emphasize that bringing NIFCA’s event to Dulibadzimu Stadium underscores Beitbridge’s commitment to advancing community safety and cross-border emergency readiness.This is shown by the fact that on the 22 there will be boader tour so that they see how hydrants are properly set and educate the stakeholders on what they to do and what not to do during a fire.
The race against time is on for fire fighters.