General News
MR Mahmoud Salihu, Deputy Operation Officer, Gombe State Fire Service said about 607 lives were saved, while property worth N1.877 billion were lost to fire disasters in the first half of 2021.
Salihu, in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Gombe on Thursday, said men of the service also saved property worth N5.578 billion.
He said that during the period under review, 172 incident calls were received, 20 persons died, while 28 persons recorded various degrees of injuries.
He attributed the success of their operations in saving lives to the proactive measures the service had taken in addition to the resuscitation of firefighting equipment by the present administration.
Salihu said the wide acceptance of sensitisation programmes being carried out across the state to ensure that citizens were more conscious to any activities that could result to fire outbreaks were yielding positive results.
“This is why we have received timely calls on incidences of fire outbreaks from the public even when it does not affect some of them; the cooperation from the people is very appreciable and commendable.’’
The fire officer, however, cautioned residents of the state to be conscious of any acts that could result to outbreak, especially now that more people were using gas cylinders which demanded extra care.
“So, children should not be allowed to handle such cooking equipment. Also, other electrical appliances must be switched off at nights and when going out while faulty ones should be fixed by professionals.’’
Salihu called on the people of the state to be careful in handling fire in view of the huge property that were often lost and even the lives that could be lost when outbreaks occurred.
He commended Gov. Inuwa Yahaya-led administration for resuscitating fire equipment in the service which he said had boosted the capacity of firemen to respond to emergencies.
He, however, appealed to the state government to procure modern firefighting equipment to further strengthen personnel’s capacity to combat outbreaks and save more lives and property.
Salihu also commended President Muhammadu Buhari for deploying modern firefighting equipment to Gombe state to complement the effort of the state government in combating fire disasters in the state. (NAN)
– July 29, 2021 @ 14:23 GMT |
Tags: Fire disasters: Gombe State Fire Service rescues 607 persons in 6months
