THE EPIDEMIC OF FIRE OUTBREAKS

•Federal service should get its act together

Bad news about the frequency of fire outbreaks as well as the inadequacies of fire management in the country is worrying indeed.  According to a report, there were “about 50 fire outbreaks recorded in a space of one week and 40 of them occurring in Lagos State alone.”

Following a major fire outbreak at a plastic factory in Oshodi, Lagos, the Commissioner for Special Duties and Intergovernmental Relations, Seyi Oladejo, reportedly said the state recorded about 40 fire incidents in two days, between February 17 and 19. Also, on February 19, said the report:  ”fire razed about nine shops at a popular estate roundabout market in Warri, Delta State.”

The report continued: “A day earlier, valuable properties worth millions of naira were said to have been destroyed in an inferno that razed the Edo State Secretariat of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) in Benin, Edo State.” Also, the Director, Anambra State Emergency Management Agency, Chief Paul Odenigbo, “recently said 13 buildings, 16 vehicles, three tricycles and two filling stations were razed in a fire incident involving a fuel tanker in Onitsha” on February 22. The  report said: “He added that two bookshops, an eatery, law offices, residential houses, and many shops were also affected in the incident, where properties estimated to be worth millions of naira were destroyed.”

It is well known that fire outbreaks happen without notice. This uncertainty means fire-fighters must be prepared for firefighting at all times. So, it is predictable that ill-prepared fire-fighters can’t function appropriately; and when there is a fire, without proper fire-fighting the flames will win.

To go by the reported state of things regarding the operations of the Federal Fire Service, it is no surprise that the flames often defeat the fire-fighters. This picture gives an insight into what is wrong: “Investigations have shown that fire service stations across the country are essentially lacking in capacity to combat fire outbreaks and are mostly in a state of disrepair… Investigations showed that except the Federal Capital Territory, the Federal Fire Service generally lacks equipment across the country and is nonexistent in many states. Findings also showed that about half of its vehicles, which are largely inadequate in number, are rickety, faulty and unfit for deployment in case of a fire emergency.”

It is unrealistic to expect success when there is no preparation for success. In the case of the Federal Fire Service, the agency has a lot of explaining to do. Investigations showed: “Despite a total sum of N26.99bn budgeted for the Federal Fire Service between 2013 and 2017 fiscal periods; it lacks the capacity and equipment required for modern fire fighting…Figures obtained from the Budget Office revealed that the N11.7bn of the N26.99bn budget was for recurrent expenditure while the balance of N15.26bn was allocated to capital expenditure.”

This background information necessarily leads to important questions: How was the money budgeted for the specific period spent? Why has the agency not developed beyond its present undesirable state?  Investigations showed that “there are just about 268 fire-fighting vehicles in all, including engines and tankers for combating fire outbreaks, for 142 million Nigerians in 25 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory.” It is noteworthy that fire-fighters reportedly “blamed neglect by governments at all levels for the paucity of funds, equipment and manpower.”

It remains to be seen whether the plan for 2017 will bring about much-needed improvement: “The fire-fighting projects and equipment for the 2017 fiscal period include the construction of metropolitan fire stations in the six geopolitical zones, including the Federal Capital Territory at N542m and the purchase of fire-fighting tenders for existing fire stations at N450m. Others are the rehabilitation of existing fire equipment at N168m and purchase of fire engines for existing fire stations at N475m.”

There is no doubt that the Federal Fire Service needs to get its act together. Furthermore, the logic of federalism demands that states also should ensure the effectiveness of their fire-fighting agencies.