•4,056 incidents in 1 year, 106 lives, N2trn lost
From Okwe Obi, Abuja
Fire outbreak across the country appears to have become a recurring decimal. The recent inferno that charred sections of a phone shop at Banex, Wuse 2, and the Supreme Court in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, has presented a fresh statistics.
The fire that engulfed the Supreme Court was said to have been caused by an electrical fault as a result of the ongoing renovation.
In a video that circulated on social media, a yet-to-be identified man claimed that personnel of the Federal Fire Service and other paramilitary agencies were helpless to quench the inferno.
The disasters majorly affect banks, markets, places of worship, schools and residential areas.
A report exclusively obtained by Daily Sun showed that, in 2022, the country recorded 2,860 incidents of fire outbreak. Eighty-0ne lives were lost, 418 saved, 139 rescued, an estimated N6.9 billion worth of properties lost and N593.9 billion saved.
Also, between January and March this year, 713 incidents were recorded, 15 people died, N11.3 billion worth of properties got destroyed, while N273,116,529.00 worth of properties were saved.
In addition, in the second quarter of 2023, 383 incidents occured which led to the loss of lives of 10 persons, and N26.7 billion worth of properties destroyed.
This disaster is largely caused by electrical equipment malfunction, candles, power surge, illegal storage of petroleum products, bush fires, dustbins, cigarette fire, gas explosion, accidents, arson, bomb explosions and building collapse.
Aside from the aforementioned causes, the national public relations officer of the Federal Fire Service, Paul Abraham, added that lack of maintenance culture and poor orientation were also contributing factors. He said most Nigerians do not believe that they could be victims of fire disaster.
He said: “One of the reasons we have incessant fire outbreaks is culture and lack of orientation. A lot of people still believe that fire is not their portion.
“When you tell them, they do not feel it is their thing because they believe that it will never happen to them.
“Again, because we are paramilitary, we wear uniforms and we do not carry arms and the mental state of Nigerians is that having been under military rule for so long, the security and military they understand is one that has the power to coerce and carry arms.
“Our own is more of persuassion. We try to talk to people out of fire incidents, prevention and all of that.”
On the quick response time, he said: “Response time is tied to the number of fire stations. I can tell you that we are in FCT and we are in the Central Business District.
“Around here, there is a fire station in Garki, Defence College, NNPCL, National Assembly, Federal Secretariat, State House and NJC. If you congregate all of these, you will see that, in less than a kilometre, there is a fire station. That is not the case when you go to Anambra.
“When you go to Imo or Abia, the fire station may be in Umuahia or Umudike or there is a fire outbreak in Owerri and the fire station is in Orlu.
“These guys are not going to do magic. They have to get into their trucks loaded with extinguishers and other things and head to Orlu.
“They will not be there on time. So, we need more fire stations. If we have more fire stations, response time will naturally reduce.
“A year or two ago, the office of the attorney-general had sparked some fire outcry and in less than seven minutes we had more than 10 trucks pulling out from Garki, Defence College, NNPCL, National Assembly, Federal Secretariat all assemblied in the place.
“That is not what is going to happen if there is a fire in Ohoazara or Umudike, where you have the Federal University.
“And the only fire station we have is in Umuahia and it will take about 15 to 20 minutes to drive to Umudike. So, we do not do magic with that.”
Abraham said he could not present the cause of the fire outbreak at the Supreme Court because the situation was under investigation.
“I cannot tell you the cause of the fire incident at the Supreme Court because there is a protocol. When our firemen go to fight fire, it behooves them when they do their overhaul and salvage.
“It simply means you have to put out fire and you want to make sure that it does not reignite. So, you have to check through and make sure that there is no fire or smoke.
“When they do that, it is now the investigators, which is Inspection, Investigation and Enforcement Department, to handle that.
“So, the investigators will go in there, ask questions, invite people, get particles and subject them to scientific investigation.
“Basic questions asked are interrogated like, what caused the fire? When did the fire start? What are the first aid fire-fighting equipment in the facility? Are they functional? It is not a 24-hour thing.
“We will tell Nigerians the cause of that fire and when it started. As at today, we do not have a comprehensive report. So, I cannot tell you.”
The Assistant Controller of the service decried the spate of attacks on service members by some unruly Nigerians and thugs.
“Like I told you, because of how Nigerians have been under military rule for a very long time, they only understand coercion and, because we do not carry arms, they do not see us as military or paramilitary in any form.
“We have been attacked a lot of times. I can give you instances where our men were attacked for no reason.
“One of such instances was in Kaduna State. Our men were coming back from a fire-fighting mission, one local football team lost their match and they took their frustration out on our firemen.
“How do you explain that? In Rivers State, where our men were called, they went to a major market, they saw thugs carrying matchets. A fireman that was attacked almost lost his life.
“But as firemen it is our responsibility to prevent, mitigate and extinguish fire. Up till now, arrangements are being made with the civil defence. In highbrow areas, hoodlums are there to also loot, and you are coming to extinguish fire.
“What that means to them is that you are preventing them from looting. So, you become their enemies on face value. We are not just worried that our men are attacked, we are saddened that it happens.
“As I am talking to you, somebody is already facing charges on a fireman in Oyo State.”
He said conversations were ongoing at the highest level to enable their men carry firearms, adding, ” Most buildings are complying with the extinguishers. Where they are not complying, we seal up the premises because it is not healthy for habitation.”
Head of the media unit, National Emergency Management Agency, Manzo Ezekiel, argued that most disasters could have been preventable if owners of buildings had installed fire extinguishers.
“Some of them are avoidable but I cannot quantify it in terms of figures.
“Everybody needs to be cautious of fire so that we can prevent it. We need to have fire extinguishers so that, before the fire snowballs into something big, it can be curtailed.
“Like what happened at the Supreme Court, I understand that firefighters were there in good time and they were able to curtail it from spreading.
“But NEMA has received a report from the Supreme Court that the fire was just small. It is not every incident that NEMA must go there,” he said.
Supreme Court spokesperson, Festus Akande, who made reference to the ongoing renovation of the complex, suggested that public buildings prone to escalate fire should be renovated.
“The public should know that, in course of time, we do renovations. As we speak, renovation is ongoing.
“Those fire extinguishers that were not installed at the beginning when the building was erected are now being installed so that, whenever occurrences like this come up, we can easily combat it without much assistance from outside.
“Renovations are going on and the outlets for water supply were blocked so that it would not affect the renovation work.
“This is a very large complex. If I am not mistaken, it is the second largest Supreme Court in the whole world. So, renovation can take six months to one year.
“Most of the ceilings have been changed to fireproof. If there is a fire outbreak in a particular building, it cannot extend to another one.”
Amid the challenges, Abraham said the Fire Service had recorded a giant feat in gathering data through repository centres.
“There is a positive side. We have expanded our infrastructure.
“Today, we have data repository centres in all the zonal commands. It is worthy to note that just before the last administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, we increased our zonal commands from 13 to 18 and we now have data repository centres in all the zones.
“That is the positive side because it is making us to capture adequate fire statistics. So, when you think it was not incessant, it is not like it was not incessant, it is just that there was no data. Today, we have data and people can access it. So, we are able to put out there the number,” he said.
