The Federal Fire Service, FFS, has lamented the growing loss of valuables occasioned by fire outbreaks in some parts of the country, disclosing that in 2011 alone, over N200 billion was lost to such incidences.
Controller General of the Service, Mr. Olusegun Okebiorun, who spoke at a media parley ahead of this year's Democracy Day celebration, explained that in the last five years, an average of N50 billion was lost annually to disaster, saying the 2011 statistics was frightening He said if the right attention was given to the Service, more than 25 per cent of the figure could have been saved.
"Nigeria has been losing minimum of N50 billion every year to fire disasters in the last five years, but 2011 was the highest with N200 billion national loss, which at least, more than 25 per cent would have been prevented if there were proper facilities to function," he lamented. According to him, Fire Service operations was a highly capital intensive one, which government and individuals must continue to pay attention to.
He said: "There is no magic about safety, all the necessary equipment must be on ground. We have submitted proposal to the government in this regard." Okebiorun noted that the Service has engaged about 1,064 of its officers in rigorous training locally and abroad. He clarified further that due to paucity of funds, the Service has decided to train more of its instructors abroad, while they are expected to train other officers in the country.
He explained further that the Service has put up National Fire Academy, which will serve as another source of income to the government when completed. The controller general also disclosed that the Service under his leadership has expanded to two other states of the federation apart from Lagos and Abuja in the last 12 months.
He said the Federal Government would soon unveil a Fire Safety Code, which he said, will regulate various activities that require safety in the country. "We have parleyed with a private organisation for effective communication to reduce response time to emergency in any part of the country," he added.
National Mirror