State Fire Service has said that many preventable deaths have occurred due to the fire incidents while valuables worth millions of naira were being lost regularly to avoidable fire outbreaks.
The Lagos State Fire Service says it has recorded no fewer than 119 fire incidents across the state from the beginning of January 2019 till date.
The Acting Director, State Fire Service, Mr Rasaki Musibau, disclosed this to journalists on Thursday at Alausa, Ikeja.
He blamed the high rate fire outbreaks in the state on high level of unconsciousness in the handling of fires and other inflammable materials.
According to him, many preventable deaths have occurred due to the fire incidents while valuables worth millions of naira were being lost regularly to avoidable fire outbreaks.
The fire chief disclosed that the directorate received about 19 fire emergency calls weekly (11 rescue calls and eight false call were received accordingly).
“Fire outbreaks in the state have become a perennial problem, with many reported cases which pose serious threat to national economy. It further leaves enormous material damages, injury to persons and disruption of economic and social life.
“Some of the fire cases are mostly caused by negligence on the part of those who use it. Hence the need to prioritise the management and prevention of fire in our environment to avoid destruction of lives and property,†he said.
Musibau said that the fire officials, as first responders to emergencies and incident management, had been empowered and equipped to tackle any form of natural and man-made incident across the state and appealed to residents to utilise the emergency toll free numbers 767 / 112 to report any case of fire incident to avert loss of lives and property.
