Fire outbreaks can be preventable when precautionary measures are taken. Some people are so careless that they do not obey safety rules and regulations on fire disasters whether in their homes, offices and markets and, of course, major roads.
There are basic rules stipulated by occupational and safety experts both in public and private firms on measures that can be adopted in avoiding fire incidents.
At petrol and gas plants stations, you see instructions such as No Smoking, No Phone Calls but people do not obey. Within the last three months, a lot of fire incidents have occurred both in Rivers State and across the country.
In one of the incidents that occurred in Lagos State, about seventy shops were burnt. Some of the buildings in one of the tertiary institutions in the northern part of Nigeria was razed down by fire. Recently, one of the biggest markets in Sokoto State was gutted by fire to the extent that 60 per cent of the shops were affected.
Last week, it went viral on social media how a truck loaded with gas fell in one of the western states went into flame and a commercial bank close to the scene immediately was gutted by fire while staff and customers were trapped in the inferno.
In Rivers State, a gas station at Rumuodomanya, headquarters of Obio/Akpor Local Government Area was gutted by fire which left one person dead at about 8pm that night. After the incident, the OBALGA chairman, Hon. Solomon Eke, while meeting with managers of filling stations at Rumuodomanya said none of the staff was on duty during the incident.
He said if they were on duty, they should have, at least, started with what they have in stock before help could come from outside and urged owners of filling stations to set up internal fire fighters.
Although, there are fire service stations within Port Harcourt. The fire service head office situated at Mile One flyover, there is another at Rumukpokwu International Market, among others which were established by government in a bid to tackle fire incidents in the city but they are not functional due to so many reasons.
Despite government’s efforts at establishing fire stations in cities across the country, issue of fire incidents is still on the increase. The common reason has been lack of emergency response team.
A lot of people keep on blaming fire service operators whenever there is fire outbreak and they arrive late. They were attacked sometime when they finally arrived at a scene. But they also have their own problems. Sometimes their phone lines are not available and they are highly incapacitated.
But some of the major reasons they usually give are lack of fund, unavailability of fire service trucks, among others. Surely, facilities and trained manpower greatly enhance their operations.
Recently, one evening on Ikwerre Road, a storey building was on fire, residents of the area and shop owners in that property were helpless, shouting and watching, without a fire-fighting team coming from anywhere to assist.
See, there can be fire stations built everywhere but their functionality is very important. A fire fighting team needs functional vans, water and soap or detergent and well-trained personnel to perform effectively and efficiently.
One of the challenges is proximity. Closeness from the point of incident to the fire service office should be considered. I think the closer the station, the earlier the problem will be solved. Response time is very important.
Availability of routes for emergency response is also important. Roads need to be effectively connected and free of traffic for easy movement. Service operators find it difficult to get to the scene of fire when roads are congested.  Thanks to the Rivers State Government for the numerous flyover bridges built across the state for ease of traffic. By the time all the flyover bridges would have been commissioned in Rivers State, congestion on our roads would have been a thing of the past.
We should have it at the back of our minds that wherever we find ourselves, we should fight fire. It is also expected that every car driver, be it private or public vehicle, must have fire extinguisher in the vehicle in case of fire outbreak. Our cooking gas cylinders are supposed to be put off properly when not in use at homes.
There are things we ignore as potential fire fighters; ensuring. We should ensure that we put off all electrical appliances when not in use in our homes and offices. Government and relevant stakeholders have always warned against storing inflammable substances like petrol in homes and shops. As humans, ignorance and negligence will not allow people keep to such rules.
Provision of standard fire service will cost millions of naira to the government, but there could be alternatives which government can employ to save lives in Nigeria. Empowering communities in responding to fire before government can come in is necessary.
Innovation in emergency response to fire fighting is necessary because the environment is dynamic. If Nigeria has to tackle fire incidents, she has to be looking at the latest technology. Though it may be expensive but can be done gradually.
The Controller-General of Nigerian Fire Service, Dr. Liman Ibrahim said new fire trucks have enhanced the capacity of federal fire service to respond timely to fire emergencies.
He said Nigeria now has the expertise like any other country and had gone 75 per cent of where others are. According to him, plans were on to order 15 rapid intervention trucks that would be stationed on Federal Road Safety Corps beats to respond to petrol fire incidents.
The Controller-General called on governors to also equip their own fire services in the states with functional fire-fighting equipment.
He said the Federal Government would buy 89 fire fighting trucks between 2021 and 2022 which will enable the agency to go to the Senatorial Districts. Government may not be able to do all, private participation will help in fire fighting.  Filling stations and gas plants should be able to set up their own internal fire fighting machineries so that government can come in as a backup.
The government, through the Rivers State Fire Service, should commence public-private engagement.  This is community and stakeholders engagement in partnership with local government councils to do an assessment of how to fight fire incidents together.
One of those community-based outfits is privately owned car wash business outfits. They are potential fire response stations because of the facilities and equipment they possess.

By: Eunice Choko-Kayode