Lagos warns as fire incidents surge to 17 per week

LAGOS, Nigeria – The Lagos State Fire Service on Thursday raised alarm over the frequent fire outbreaks in the State and attributed same to a high level of unconsciousness in the handling of flammable materials, revealing that an increased rate of fire incidents across the State had been reported from the beginning of January 2019 till date. 

The Acting Director – Lagos State Fire Service, Rasaki Musibau, who made this known at Alausa, Ikeja, lamented that valuables worth millions of Naira and precious lives are being lost daily to avoidable fire outbreaks.

The Fire Chief expressed concern about a worrisome rate of 17 Fire emergency calls being reported per week to the Directorate but assured that the Lagos State government, being a responsible and responsive government, will stem the trend as it places a premium on the safety of the citizenry. 

In his words, “Fire outbreaks in the State have become a perennial problem, with many reported cases which pose a serious threat to the national economy and further leaves enormous material damage, injury to persons and disruption of economic and social life.

Some of the Fire cases are mostly caused by negligence by individuals, hence the need to prioritise the management and prevention of fire in our environment in order to avoid the destruction of lives and properties”.

Musbau noted that the Fire Officers as First Responders to emergency and incident management have been empowered and equipped to tackle any form of natural and man-made incident across the State.

He further appealed to Lagosians to get familiar with the toll-free numbers 767/112 in order to call promptly during any emergency and avert the loss of lives and property.