Fire Brigade conditions in Kutaisi
 
Catherine Philpott recently returned from Georgia visiting Tbilisi, Khaketi, Kutaisi and Batumi. In her final week the Russians invaded, attacking the seaport of Poti and became stranded in the coastal town of Batumi.
 
Fortunately she was able to leave eventually via Turkey – flying from Trabzon via Ankara to London.
 
Whilst she was in Kutaisi she took the opportunity to visit No. 3 Fire Station and meet some members of the fire brigade, one who will be part of the delegation visiting Newport in September for training with the South Wales Fire & Rescue Service.
 
The following photographs graphically portray the very poor conditions that the firemen work under.

Kutaisi has three Fire stations – and all are in much worse condition than No 3.

Here are some of the diffculites they face.

They have no easily available water

None of their equipment is serviceable. They have one 34-year-old engine that is being kept on the road by spare parts taken from two cannibalised engines – (see photograph)

They have no protective clothing (see photo – neither fire proof nor waterproof)

They have no proper head protection – (the helmet shown here was taken from a building site)

There is no heating system in the station – hence the destruction of upper floors to feed wood burning fires to keep warm in the very cold winters.

Koba Lomidze who will act as interpreter to the September delegation took further photographs for us and we are sure that these images are proving useful to the South Wales Fire Service, helping to understand more fully the conditions in Georgia.