THE MENACE OF FIRE OUTBREAKS 

 The widespread and destructive fire incident in California holds lessons for Nigeria

The fast-moving fire outbreak that has claimed the lives of no fewer than 16 Americans, destroyed billions of dollars worth of property, put hundreds of thousands of people under evacuation orders and ravaged communities in Los Angeles, United States, has brought to fore the danger posed by fire, aided by climate change.   

And it should pose significant lessons to stakeholders in Nigeria. Even when we concede that fire outbreak in public buildings is not a new phenomenon, the rate at which they occur in our country is also alarming, and sometimes suspicious. But what all the recent developments point to is that there is need for a better appreciation of the challenge posed by fire outbreaks.

In the first half of 2024, the Lagos State Fire and Rescue Service said the state witnessed no fewer than 1,085 incidents of fire outbreaks with Eti-Osa and Ikeja topping the list of affected local governments. According to the Director of the state’s Fire and Rescue Service, Margaret Adeseye, the months of January, February and May witnessed more incidents of the fire outbreaks. These three months recorded a combined 614 fire outbreaks with January having 213, February 215 and May recording 186 cases. The cases of fire incidents across the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) have also risen astronomically in the last one year with over 266 cases of fire outbreaks recorded in the first half of 2024. The FCT Fire Service said the figure was way beyond what was recorded in the whole of 2023.

In many countries, it is not just enough to design and construct buildings, it is more important to make allowances for a possible outbreak of fire by ensuring the availability of fire-fighting equipment in such facilities. While we are aware that such codes and regulations are also available here in Nigeria, they are rarely enforced. We have had more than enough fire tragedies that ought to have warranted the entrenchment of various forms of mechanism by the operators of public and private places to reduce occurrences. Most irksome is that some of the incidents culminating in this colossal damage were caused by the careless attitudes of individuals who fail to learn any lesson from similar developments in the past. 

We therefore call on the federal, state and local governments to come up with sound and effective mechanisms to protect important places, buildings, markets and institutions from fire incidents. We also challenge the government to as a matter of urgency, deliberately revamp and mobilise the fire service to perform optimally. Stringent measures should also be put in place to punish any individual or group which carry out any activity resulting in inferno. 

Meanwhile, early detection of fire is a crucial step in fire prevention, and this should be ensured through individual alertness, volunteer system and the installation of automatic fire detection systems at various points in buildings. Our urban planners should also ensure that there is enough access points through which fire fighters and emergency personnel could gain entrance to put off a fire before it spreads. There have been several cases, especially in markets across the country where limited access for fire fighters made it difficult for them to attack the inferno which razed buildings. 

To reduce the increasing regularity of these fire outbreaks and the attendant dangers to lives and property, it is important to: step up advocacy on the issue; conduct regular fire drills in public buildings; enforce existing fire codes and put in place new ones. Until these measures are put in place and scrupulously enforced, fire incidents will continue to bring irreparable losses to the society.