The Director-General of National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Mr. Mustapha Ahmed, has expressed serious concern over the rising fire incidents in some communities and markets nationwide in the past few days and charged the governments and other stakeholders to mitigate the losses associated with such hazards on lives, property and businesses with insurance covers.
Ahmed, who gave the advice in a statement on Monday, urged Nigerians to do everything possible to avoid fire incidents and other natural disasters in view of their devastating impacts on lives and other assets.
He said: “Fire, like any other disaster, has been part of human existence, but the frequency and impacts of this in recent weeks has necessitated a serious concern and call for action by all stakeholders. In December last year, I had the cause to alert the public to the dangers of fire disasters during the dry season.
“As with the onset of the dry season, the present onset of the rainy season is also characterized by typical windstorms that easily propagate combustible matter in form of dry vegetation and agricultural wastes
“The best firefighting technique is prevention. The best way to prevent a fire is to create awareness and develop a culture of safety and resilience among authorities, communities and individual members of the public”, Ahmed added.
According to him, fire disaster preventive efforts or measures should aim at measures and procedures for averting fire outbreaks, early detection and timely response to save lives and minimize damage and economic losses.
To achieve this, the NEMA boss maintained that all hands must be on deck to reduce fire disasters and all associated human and material losses nationwide.
The Director-General said: “Government agencies, corporate organizations, private businesses and individuals should endeavour to leverage insurance companies to safeguard and protect their property and businesses as a form of risk transfer in case of fire.”
Ahmed further stated that in furtherance of the agency’s statutory mandate it would continue to work with its partners to save lives and property, stressing that no effort and resources was too much to commit to achieving this.
He hinted that all NEMA zonal and operation offices had been directed to work with the State Emergency Management Agencies (SEMAs) to conduct joint assessments in communities affected by the recent fire incidents.
