By Monsuru Olowoopejo

The Lagos State fire service is having a tough time coping with the number of fire disasters recorded in the state in the last four months.
Statistics by the state fire service, revealed that at least 28 lives were lost to 552 fire and other disasters recorded in the state between March 1st and July 31, 2015.

Isolo fire

With this statistics, the number of fire disasters and others recorded in the state between January and July 31st, 2015 increased to 969; a figure indicating that the state has recorded over 50 percent of what it recorded in 2014.

In July alone, 13 lives were lost in the state to the 101 fire and other disasters were recorded in the state. However, seven persons were rescued and 10 false calls were responded to by the state fire servicemen.

One major fire disaster recorded in the state in July occurred on the thirty first. In the disaster, three sisters were burnt to death at Rainbow estate in Oke Afa axis of the state.

A breakdown showed that 125 fire disasters were recorded in April, 118 in May while 92 was recorded in June.

This was contained in the half year report of the State Fire Service released by the Director, Mr. Rasak Fadipe.

Fadipe further told Vanguard that even with the rainy season; the number of fire calls in the state did not reduced, saying “the State fire service responded to 1009 emergency calls in the last seven months.

According to   him; “Between April and June 2015, regarded as raining (wet) season was expected to have been a period of low emergency fire calls, but the fire service was surprised with the high number of emergency responded to in the period under review, which was mainly attributed to human errors.”

“The Public should remember that there is no small Fire incidence because every outbreak of Fire is followed by destruction to Properties and sometimes Life threatening. Method used in mitigating them also required cleansing aftermath of the Fire fighting operations.

“The state government placed high premium on safety of lives and properties of citizens, therefore the nonchalant attitude of the public to the safety of their lives and properties is of great concern to the fire service.

“The Public is hereby advised to be careful in handling electronic appliances, naked lights, gas cookers and any other flammable products,. Motorist are strongly advised to at all times to carry genuine portable fire extinguisher to protect their lives and properties in case of an outbreak of fire,” Fadipe added.