Few and Far Between
The Northern Province of Sri Lanka, about 3,400 square miles in area, has but a single fire station.
So much for response times.
Jaffna is the main city in the province with a population of about 500,000 and the station is located there.
In fact, the Jaffna district alone is over 300 square miles.
There are no volunteer fire brigades in the country, either.
They obviously have fires here, the question is who, if anyone, extinguishes them?
There are a total of 18 firefighters in the brigade with three shifts of 6 each.
They work a 24/48 shift, one day on and two days off.
From our standpoint the lack of fire protection, even in urban districts, is stunning.
Perhaps there is a cultural rationale.
It may be that fires, and the havoc they cause, are seen as part of life or are so rare as to not merit serious attention.
On the other hand, maybe we pay too much attention to them.
In the place I am now staying, in the central part of the country, they have installed a standpipe system with hose which is better than nothing, assuming that some one is trained to use it and that it is in working order.
The hotel, in Habarana, is only a couple of years old yet has neither sprinklers nor smoke detectors, even in sleeping rooms.
Sri Lanka is security obsessed with so many police that even the scooters have two officers but have a fire and you are on your own.