We Saved 175 Lives, N3.7tn Property in Three Months, Says Fire Service

Seriki Adinoyi

The Federal Fire Service (FFS) has disclosed that in the first quarter of 2021, the Service saved 175 lives and N3.7 trillion worth of property from destruction, identifying industrial fire as the major reason for the spike in fire incidents.

The Controller-General of FFS, Dr. Liman Ibrahim, who disclosed this during the 11th National Fire Conference held in Jos, Plateau State, said: “We had 986 fire calls, 34 rescue emergencies, 175 lives saved, 11 lives lost, an estimated property of N3.7 trillion saved and an estimated property of N9.42 billion lost during the first quarter of 2021.”

Liman noted that the phenomenal increase in fire-fighting and emergency asset base in the President Muhammadu Buhari government is unprecedented in the history of the FFS, adding that it is a confirmation and demonstration of Buhari’s administration’s commitment to ensuring the safety and security of lives and property across Nigeria.

He said the state-of-the-art fire-fighting trucks and Basic Life Support (BLS) ambulances have been deployed across the country to tackle any fire incident.

While observing that the conference, by its characteristics, remains the highest technical session of fire services to deliberate and brainstorm on contemporary issues, Liman said it was therefore apt to adopt this year’s conference with the theme: ‘Fire Safety Management as an Imperative to National Security’.

The FFS boss warned that lack of fire safety management has the capacity to breach national security, explaining that “anything that threatens the physical well-being of the population or jeopardise the stability of the country’s economy, food security, wildlife and forest reserves as well as institutions, infrastructures and national assets is considered a national security threat.”

To effectively cover the country, Liman said the Service is working hard to ensure that its operational scope reaches the remaining 72 senatorial zones with the deployment of personnel and assets to the zones.

On the security of personnel, he said: “We have made a call for the establishment of an armed squad in the Service that will be saddled with the responsibility of protecting our personnel at fire scenes from hoodlums and miscreants’ harassment, and assaults on fire officers and destruction of assets is totally unacceptable.”

Also speaking at the event, the state Commissioner for Housing, Mr. Rimven Zulfa, who was represented by the Permanent Secretary in the ministry, Alfred Datoel, also consider the theme as appropriate for the time given the predicament both as a people and a country during and after the economic drift caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Also speaking, the state Director of Fire Service, Mr. Caleb Polit, said fire administration is a very complex responsibility, and doing so in a developing world seems more cumbersome given the lackluster attitude towards safety and security in the country.