March 19, 2018

The Kwara State Fire Service said on Monday that it recorded 100 fire incidents, saved 28 lives and property worth about N6.8 million in the state between January and December 2017.

Alhaji Abdulwaheed Yakub, the Head of Fire Prevention in the service, disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in llorin.

Yakub said the figures recorded in 2017 were a remarkable achievement when compare with those recorded in 2016, when 172 incidents occurred and five persons lost their lives.

He revealed that the estimated value of the property lost to fire incidents in 2017 was N426, 309 as against over N1.2 million recorded in 2016.

“The service received 10 false alarm calls in 2016 as against 10 recorded in 2017 from unidentified residents of the state.

“I want to reaffirm the commitment of the service to sustaining the achievements recorded in 2017.

“This will do this by embarking on more sensitisation programmes on fire prevention in all the 16 local government areas of the state.

“The only three fire stations in llorin, Offa and Omuaran are grossly inadequate to cater for fire outbreaks in all parts of the state,’’ he said.

Yakub appealed to the state government to establish fire stations with modern equipment in all the local government headquarters to attend promptly to fire outbreaks and similar incidents.

He warned residents of the state to desist from making false fire alarm calls to save the manpower and resources at the disposal of the service.