BY TINA AKANNAM
DUTSE— NO fewer than 100 lives and properties worth N88.6 million were lost, last year, in accidents and fire disasters in Jigawa State, Director of Fire Service, Alhaji Nasiru Yusuf has said.

Yusuf made this known yesterday while lamenting at the manner some residents in the state capital and environs set fire indiscriminately around their houses and farm lands in the name of clearing such farms.

Said he:” We wish to warn people in the state that it is an offence to set fire indiscriminately in residential areas and even on farmlands because of its hazards during this harmattan season. Here, the weather is usually very dry during harmattan season and any small bush burning can lead to serious inferno”.

He added that of the 178 distressed calls received last year, 137 human lives and properties worth over N179 million were saved, adding that these incidences include fire disasters, autocrashes and drowning in local rivers across the state.

Yusuf, however, said that this year, they recorded less emergency calls, even as he predicted that if the people of the state can guide against indiscriminate bush and refuse burning, as the year ended the number of hazards will remain low compared to previous years.

Reacting to the fire incident at Fatara Housing estate that destroyed one of the 500 buildings in the estate, he said six houses were razed down, but for the prompt intervention of his men, which saved the situation. He attributed the cause of the fire incident to indiscriminate burning of grass around the house.