Fire kills 158 Nigerians in 1 year – FG

The Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, says from 2020 to the first quarter of 2021, fire incidents across the country claimed 158 lives with property worth N41.5bn lost.

He said this in Abuja on Tuesday at the commissioning ceremony of 20 newly procured Basic Life Support (BLS) modern ambulance buses and seven firefighting trucks.

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“It is noted that 2020 into 2021 has witnessed frightening fire incidents, ranging from markets to gas and pipelines fires around the country.

“Statistics at our disposal show that the FFS in 2020 to the first quarter of 2021 received 4,541 fire calls from which regrettably, 158 lives were lost and property loss is estimated at N41.5 billion,” he said.

Aregbesola urged the state governors and the local government chairmen to invest in firefighting in order to reduce the loss of lives and property from fire incidents across the country.

“There are smaller firefighting equipment that could be purchased and deployed in the local governments and state levels,” he said.

He noted that the equipment being commissioned were part of the N10.4bn infrastructure upgrade approved by the Federal Executive Council on March 3, comprising 44 firefighting engines, 15 water tankers, 15 rapid intervention fire engines and 20 basic life support ambulances.

The minister said the arrival of the new ambulance buses and trucks and their deployment to the various zonal and state commands would enhance the service delivery of the FFS during emergencies.

“I’ll, therefore, urge the zonal and state commands where these vehicles would be deployed to reciprocate the federal government’s gesture, to optimize and effectively use these assets to improve fire cover, enhance emergency response operations, and complement State Fire Services operations while enhancing fire safety across the country,” Aregbesola said.

Earlier, the Controller-General of the FFS, Liman Ibrahim, had said that the Service would commence deployment of its “personnel and assets to the 72 remaining senatorial districts” before the end of this year.