Federal Fire Service Logo (Credit : FFS – Facebook)
By Marie-Therese Nanlong
Jos – Fire fighters nationwide are gathered in Jos, the Plateau State capital to organize, plan, monitor and review the fire safety measures with a view to building their capacity to deliver on their job.
The five days National Fire conference, tagged: “Fire Safety Management as an imperative to National Security” is also targeted at building the capacity of personnel to be proactive and to raise the bar in fire safety management and ensure safety in the nation.
The Controller General of the Federal Fire Service, Ibrahim Liman who addressed the participants during the 11th edition of the conference disclosed plan is underway to repeal the Fire Service Act 1964 and reenact a more robust Act that meets modern exigencies for better service delivery.
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The CG added, “It is now time to step up fire safety management as lack of it has the capacity to breach our national security. Anything that threatens the physical wellbeing of the population or jeopardizes the stability of the nation’s economy, food security, wildlife and forest reserves as well as institutions, infrastructures and national assets is considered a national security threat.”
He noted that in the first quarter of 2021, the Service got a total of “986 fire calls, 34 rescue emergencies, 175 lives saved, 11 lives lost, an estimated property saved N3.7trn, estimated property lost N9.42bn” and blamed the spike in figure to industrial fire.
Liman assured that the Service is working to improve on its delivery as “operational scope has spanned all the States of the federation and FCT, before the end of the year, we will commence the deployment of personnel and assets to the 72 remaining Senatorial districts.”
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Earlier, the Acting Director of the Plateau State Fire Service, Caleb Polit stressed that “fire administration the world over is a very complex responsibility and doing so in a developing world seems more cumbersome given the lackluster attitude to safety and security.”
He was optimistic that the event will provide the support to participants to deliver on their job and intimated that the State Governor, Simon Lalong has shown commitment by ensure maintenance of firefighting trucks, purchase of firefighting equipment and chemicals and motivated staff through prompt payments of salaries.
