ISSUES IN THE AFRILAND TOWERS’ FIRE
The authorities should do well and enforce building codes and regulations
The death toll in last week’s fire at the Lagos Afriland Towers Fire has continued to rise. Although the blaze reportedly started from the inverter room at the building’s basement, it spread rapidly through the high-rise, trapping many of the occupants on multiple floors. While the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) has released the names of four of its senior staff members who lost their lives, other corporate organisations that occupy the third and fourth floors of the building have also confirmed that a number of their employees died in the incident. We commiserate with the families of victims even as we hope that the authorities will investigate the tragedy and learn sufficient lessons.
The Institute of Safety Professionals of Nigeria (IPSON) which is responsible for individuals involved in occupational health has raised several pertinent questions about response time and risk management, especially in high-rise buildings. The Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) has also raised fundamental issues on this tragedy. “We are not saying that such incidents do not occur in other climes but what baffles us here was the sight of some Nigerian workers jumping out of windows on high rise buildings for fear of their lives,” acting president, Adewale Adeyanju stated. “One wonders if there were any significant safety precautions in designing and managing the building and whether the workers were adequately trained and prepared for such eventualities.…”
The real concern is that this is not an isolated incident, especially regarding fire incidents from electricity sources. Statistics from the Federal Fire Service (FFS) have repeatedly revealed that the number of fire incidents caused by electrical sparks is becoming a huge menace in the country. It was the number one cause of fire outbreaks in 2021 with 636 of such incidents, while electrical equipment caused 447 fire cases. But the bigger challenge is in the rescue efforts after such incidents. From lack of adequate equipment to shortage of water, emergency services are, to say the least, deficient in many of these tragedies. Sometimes, the problem is institutional.
In most countries, it is not just enough to design and construct buildings, it is more important to make allowances for a possible outbreak of fire by ensuring the availability of fire-fighting equipment in such facilities. While we are aware that such codes and regulations are also available here in Nigeria, they are rarely ever enforced. We have had more than enough fire tragedies that ought to have warranted the entrenchment of various forms of mechanism by the operators of public and private places to reduce occurrences. Most irksome is that some of the incidents were caused by the careless attitudes of individuals who fail to learn any lesson from similar tragedies in the past. We therefore call on the federal, state and local governments to come up with sound and effective mechanisms to protect important places, buildings, markets and institutions from fire incidents. We also challenge the developers of these high-rise buildings to take precautions, especially in the management of their energy sources.
More importantly, early detection is a very crucial step in fire prevention. This can be ensured through individual alertness, volunteer system and the installation of automatic fire detection systems at various points, especially in high-rise buildings. Our urban planners should also ensure that there are enough access points through which fire fighters and emergency personnel could gain entrance to put off a fire before it spreads. There have been several cases, especially in markets across the country, where limited access for the fire fighters made it difficult for them to attack the inferno which often razed buildings.
To reduce the increasing regularity of these fire outbreaks and the attendant dangers to lives and properties, it is important to step up advocacy on the issue, conduct regular fire drills in public buildings and scrupulously enforce fire codes. Until all the critical stakeholders take these issues seriously, fire incidents will continue to claim innocent lives and bring incalculable losses to the country.
