Nasarawa State Fire Service Department says fire disaster consumed property worth about N489.4 million across the state in 2018.
The Nasarawa state Chief Fire Officer, Alhaji Dogara Dalhatu, stated this on Tuesday in Lafia while reviewing activities of his department.
He said that his staff saved property worth about N1.2 billion during the period under review.
Dalhatu stated that in 2018, they responded to 114 distress calls, out of which with 98 had to do with fire outbreaks while 11 were calls for rescue operations and five were false alarms.
He said: “Like you all know, rescue operations range from people that fall inside the well, dam, open water and other situations where we were required to come and rescue a person.
“Five of the calls were false calls; some people enjoy seeing fire trucks with firemen moving around, or they want to know whether we are alert at any given time. So they dial our number to come to a location but when we got there, we saw nothing.”
He disclosed that the fire service recorded the highest number of fire incidents in December, because of the windy harmattan weather that usually attracted fire, while the lowest number of outbreaks was recorded in August, being raining season.
The Nasarawa Officer appealed to residents to be extra careful and vigilant during the harmattan period.
He said: “People should always be cautious wherever they are and should have first aid firefighting equipment at their disposal so that the moment they discover any spark or smoke, they can use the equipment to stop the impending danger.”
Dalhatu also appealed to the state government to train and retrain fire service personnel to enable them perform optimally.
He added: “Training and retraining are very important. Insurance is also very important. I also call on the state government to insure all fire fighters because of the hazardous nature of the job.”
