By Monsuru Olowoopejo

Residents in Lagos State, have continued to berate the State Fire Service for often delaying in coming to put-out building gutted by fire in the state, lamenting that this has majorly contributed to huge loss of properties worth million of naira.

The residents daily make emergency calls to the toll-free lines-767 and 112, established by the state government in 2012 seeking the service of the emergency response team especially the State fire service to quench fire from structures that were gutted by fire.

Vanguard gathered that the State fire fighter responds to at least four fire calls daily, through the toll-free lines-767 and 112, provided by the state government in 2012, to attend to cases of emergencies. According to the Commissioner for Home Affairs and Culture, Mr. Oyinlomo Danmole at this year’s ministerial briefing, the state fire service responded to 2, 342 calls between May, 31, 2013 and April 30, 2014.

It was also gathered that after exhausting the thousands of litres of water brought at first to the scene, it usually takes the fire truck over 30 minutes before arriving with another thousands of litres of water.

Mr. Gbolahan Ajayi, who resides in the Ojo area of the state, said: “Recently, when a tanker exploded in a petrol filling station in my community, we made calls to the emergency lines and fortunately received prompt response from fire fighters.

“But the sad thing was that after they exhausted the thousands of litres of water, they brought, they had to race back to their station for more water. It took them several minutes before they could return to the scene,” Ajayi explained.

Another resident, in Ajegunle area of the state, Amaka Uche, who shared an experience of a fire incident in her area said: “Sometime ago, when fire gutted a building on my street, while waiting for the fire servicemen to bring more water, we could not help but watch our properties razed by fire.”

Sharing his own experience, Abdulahi Abdul-Rahman, a resident in Epe said “The fire disaster that occurred in Epe recently was horrible, as we were left to gaze, because we do not have the expertise to solve such a disaster. However, the fire service officials have these expertise. They have the equipment like aerial ladders with fire resistant and heavy water pumps. The fire fighters could also provide the required litres of water,” Abdul-Rahman said.

Responding, the state Governor, Babatunde Fashola at the 2015 budget presentation at the State House of Assembly, Alausa, appealed to the residents, saying our fire service officers “are daily being trained and retrained, as we are expanding to be close to you.”