THE Kaduna State Fire Service saved property worth over N9 billion from more than 454 fire outbreaks from January to December 2018.

The Director of the Service, Paul Aboi, made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Kaduna on Wednesday.

“The property destroyed were estimated at N4 billion,’’ Aboi said.

He, however, said that the total figure was lower than that of 2017.

The director attributed the reduction to sensitisation campaigns by the State Emergency Management Agency and the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA).

The director said that the service was doing its best to reduce and bring fire disasters in the state to the barest minimum.

He said investigations showed that most of the fire incidents occurred as a result of negligence and improper installation of electrical appliances.

Aboi advised residents of the state to be very careful with electrical appliances and always disconnect them from power source when they were not in use.

“The only language fire understands is prevention; people should switch off electrical gadgets in rooms not occupied.

“They should remove cut-outs from main power supply so that if there is power surge, it will not affect the building,’’ he said.

Aboi said the agency would continue to sensitise the residents on fire safety measures to reduce the number of fire outbreaks.

He warned residents to be careful during the dry season as the period was prone to fire disaster, saying fire usually raged out of control during the period.

“We recorded most of the fire incidences within the harmattan period of January, March, November and December in a total of 300 incidents,’’ Aboi said.

He urged leaders of markets within the state to prohibit cigarette smoking within markets so as to avoid fire incidents.

-NAN

BE

– Jan. 9, 2019 @ 13:19 GMT |