THE BALOGUN FIRE OUTBREAK: Matters Arising.

I have read on social media and the blame game and media attack on men of the Fire Service of the two fire incident yesterday at the Lagos Island, Lagos. There are narrative going on that men of the Fire Service don't turn out at all or turn out late whenever there are fire outbreak.

I beg to disagree with this general assertion that men of the Fire Service don't turn out whenever there is a fire outbreak. That is not true sir.
The 5/11 fire at Balogun market was an unfortunate incident. The Firemen received alert and within some seconds turned out their Fire Engines towards the scene of the fire.

Note also that, for the Firemen to turn out on time to Balogun market requires gaining road access, they struggle with the human traffic, the market traffic, illegal shops blocking the roads thereby obstructing their access to the scene of the fire.

Watching the video, one can say that greater portion of the roads were converted to shops, bukers(local shops), offices and all what. That is not the Balogun I know in the mid 2000s while in Lagos. The authority concern should do the right thing.

However upon their arrival at the fire scene they were able to contain the fire, put it under control and extinguished it.

Just yesterday alone, there were three incident of fire outbreak in Lagos(two at Lagos Island and one at the mainland) but our men were able to put it under control.

I read where people accused the Fire Service of turning out their Fire Appliances without water and that the Fire Appliances are obsolete. Let me use this opportunity to also say that it is not true and make a few points to enlighten us.

1. The Federal Fire Service acquired a new set of modern Fire Appliances (Fire Trucks or Fire Engine) and has expanded her operational capacity across the country.

2. No Fire Truck is turn out to a fire scene without water and foam content. It's against our professional ethics for a Fireman to turn out an empty Fire Appliance to a fire scene. In fact it can't happen and it has never happen. Once a Fire Appliance is return to the station, the first thing that the screw do is to refill and station it appropriately.

3. This Fire Truck has a capacity of 6,000 liters of water content at one section and about 700 liters of foam concentrate at another section. (The foam is used for different class or type of fire after agitation with water to give a finish foam)

Once the operation commence, 6,000 liters of water can be jetted under few minutes depending on the pressure applied.
As soon as the water is exhausted, the Fireman will have to go and refill the truck while the other truck continue to fight the fire and at that point the capacity of the attack will be depleted.

In advanced countries(developed countries), they are water hydrant at every 50 or 100 meters. This enable the Fireman to connect their hose to the hydrant and simultaneously fight the fire, and won't run short of water.
It is against this backdrop that people tend to stone Firemen and accuse them of turning out with an empty Appliance which is not true.

Irrespective of this, Fireman has successfully contain and extinguished various fires across the country in recent time. It us our mandate and we don't and won't shy away from doing so anytime anyway.

4. All over the world, Firefighters are suppose to go to the scene of the fire with just 2,500 liters of water and activate the process of firefighting and then connect the suction hose to the public water hydrant. They question is, is there public water hydrant in Nigeria?

5. Yes, fire develop rapidly but all fire starts at its incipient stage but we have observed that Nigerians don't raise the alarm once there is fire when it is at it incipient stage.

Let me categorically state here that safety is not an occasion. Rather it is the control of recognize hazard to avoid or prevent a risk. An emergency that will happen when you least expect is not an occasion.
It is therefore expected of the public to note the following,
(i) once fire is detected, they should be a
prompt transmission of alarm to the fire
service.
(ii) the public should initiate evacuation of the
building.
(iii) confining of the fire if you are trained in
that aspect.
(iv) use the right fire extinguisher to extinguish
the fire at its incipient stage, if only you are
trained to handle such or else wait for the
arrival of the Firemen.
But in Nigeria people try to use all sort of unprofessional means in trying to see if they can extinguish the fire and when the fire has fully developed to an uncontrollable stage they run and call the fire service.
Let it be known that fire is one thing you cannot extinguish if..
(a) you don't have the right fire extinguisher.
(b) you are not properly trained to handle the fire extinguisher because in such incident you may become a victim.
(c) the fire is at its incipient stage that you can control and extinguished using the right fire extinguisher if only you know how to use it.

On the issue of fire infrastructures, I call on cooperate bodies, banks, market association, multinationals, State Governors, institutions, religion bodies to as a matter of corporate social responsibility to buy modern Fire Appliances (Fire Trucks/Engine) for the Fire Service (Federal & State).
We often read how State Governor do procure patrol vehicles for the police but the Fire Service had been far too neglected over the years.

Odah Joseph (Cadet Assistant Superintendent of Fire II (ASF II)
writes from Abuja)