Engr Martin Agbili is the Director and Fire Chief, Anambra State Fire Service. In this interview with OKEY CHRIS, he cautions on the use of expired gas cylinders (gas cookers), calls on the public to cultivate the culture of building and living in fire-safety designed houses, avoid phone calls at petrol stations, among others
What can you say are the greatest achievements of Anambra State Fire Service since creation of the state in 1991?
Well, what Fire Service has achieved is a very big question. What I think the issue should be is what are the primary duties and responsibilities of fire service, which are to save lives and properties, render humanitarian services and to educate the public on the fire safety management and fire prevention. Anambra State Fire Service has not lagged behind in discharging these responsibilities, since it came on board following creation of this state in 1991.
What have been your challenges since you came board as Director Anambra State Fire Service?
The major challenge facing fire service chiefs and fire fighters nationwide is mob action from the public. People are yet to understand the system in which fire service operates. Many believed that once there is fire outbreak anywhere, the fire service should appear within a few seconds. But it is not possible. That is why they will claim that we are not serious once we fail to come. There are lots of things to be considered before rushing into conclusion that fire fighters came late to a fire scene. First, you should talk about the time you phoned the fire fighters. Then, think about distance between the nearest fire station in your area and the scene of fire. Do you also consider the road traffic which is the major thing. It obstructs the movement of fire fighters especially, the movement of fire trucks and personnel. By the time the public check all these, they will find out that there is no reason for throwing tantrum or beating up the fire fighters for coming early or late.
Extinguish fire
On traffics, people don’t always adhere to fire service siren, because there are many people using siren today. We have politicians, motorcyclists, the police and others using siren. These make it difficult for one to differentiate between the fire fighters and other siren users while on traffic. Siren is actually meant for three basic people; the fire service people, ambulance and may be government officials. The essence of siren is to give hope to the public that fire service is on the way to quench fire outbreak. If it is armed robbery, police is on the way to bring the situation to normalcy. If it is federal road safety commission, there is help coming to road users. But now everyone is using siren, people do mistake it to something common. You can only scale through them by forcing yourself into the traffic to pass.
The next big issue confronting the fire service is fire hydrant. We don’t have it within the state. In fact I can tell you that we don’t have fire hydrant anywhere in this country. We used to have it before now. But you can’t see it anywhere now because there is no constant water supply anywhere in Nigeria. Why this thing is affecting fire service is because the water we usually carry on our water truck finishes within few minutes of arriving at scene of fire incident. This makes it difficult for us to refill our tanks with water.
Search for water
Thus, we have to start searching for water all over the place. Also, when we get to boreholes where water is sold, the people will start demanding for money which we don’t have. This will further force us to look for water elsewhere. If there is hydrant, fire service will work wherever there is fire incidence. That it is why sometimes it takes the fire service about forty five minutes or more to extinguish fire.
Again, fire service usually has shortage of manpower (personnel), because their workers retire every year. And we need people to replace them. When this thing is not forthcoming, the strength of fire men keeps reducing. But, I thank God that our Governor, His Excellency Chief Willie Obiano, is doing something on that. He has promised to employ about one hundred men in the fire service soonest. It will help us to build on our manpower in terms of fire service in Anambra.
What are other things facing the fire service?
As it stands, the major equipment fire fighters need is a formidable fire truck. We have a standard fire truck which is the most important equipment. There are other little things needed to keep us fighting fire. We equally need the chemical form compound. Our governor has also promised to increase it for us because the one we have at present is not enough. It is what we use to blanket the fire so that it will not continue spreading. In all, we have most of the equipment we need for fire fighting in Anambra.
How many fire service stations do we have in Anambra State?
We have nine functional and six non- functional fire stations in Anambra State. They are 15 all together. What I mean by non -functional is because those places already have well- built structures on ground. There are buildings and every other thing with an exception of perimeter fencing and landscaping to make it standard.
The functional ones are in our Awka headquarters, Government House, Amawbia, Ekwulobia, Nnewi, Ogidi building materials, Nkpor, Okpoko and Onitsha main market. The non- functional ones are at Agulu (besides Agulu lake), Umunze, Ihiala, Nnewi, Otuocha, Onistha marine area.
Are there measures to install more fire service stations in the state considering the fact that Anambra has 177communities?
Sure! There are plans to build more. But you know that everything about fire service is expensive. That is why the government is taking it gradually. We plan to have it at Ogbunike and four other places. But even if we have 20 it may not be enough. We are trying to have fire stations in all local government areas. We also found out that most of these council areas are far away from major communities constituting them. So, it may not also be enough. But we will soon get there.
Do you consider the services or help of other stakeholders like churches, civil societies, etc. in fire fighting?
Yes, because I always tell people that fire safety management and fire prevention is for everybody. In this case, we try to extend our tentacles to private individuals, companies and churches. We are not going to ask them to buy trucks for us because we know is too expensive. But there are things they need to do to assist in fire management. That is why we normally have interactions with them to assist and they always respond. For instance, market leaders. Our interactions with them contributed to the government plans to get a-unified fire units in all the markets in the state. Also, many churches have accepted to grant us about five to ten minutes time to talk to their congregations on fire service during church programmes (service or masses). We are also intimating them on why to assist us print fliers, posters and other literature we will use for the sensitisations. It can be by the churches or any individual among them. We used to tell them that they are free to include their logos or names on it.
Safety design
Again, we are having interaction with the Anambra State Physical Planning Board (ASPPB), Awka Capital Territory Development Authority (ACTDA), and Medical Testing laboratories. These three agencies can be of greatest help to us on fire management and prevention. With ASPPB and ACTDA, we shall be having our inputs on everything about building. We can give final vetting before any building will be erected. We are trying to form a synergy with them so that before they give a final approval to someone to build a house, the person must add a fire safety design. All buildings in Anambra state need to have a fire safety design. Most of the buildings in Anambra and Nigeria generally lack fire safety design. Fire safety designs building contains everything about fire safety measure and management in before construction. These include the fire hydrant, the sprinkler, the fire alarm system, the smoke detector and fire extinguisher itself. We are requesting for assistance of landlords in getting this realised. However, there is no strong landlord union in Anambra with an exception of Onitsha where they have little presence. So we are trying to start holding meetings with them to educate them extensively on the need to adhere to fire safety design while erecting any structure.
Cylinder of fire extinguisher
We will also make them to understand why they should make it a law that every of their tenants must have at least a cylinder of fire extinguisher before he or she can park in. By so doing, they can be secured whenever there is fire incident. They can park out of the house with it any time they feel like leaving the building. With fire, they can easily extinguish fire at earlier stage rather than be running about in search of fire fighters. This will also help in curtailing fire before it spread out.
Similarly, we are planning to meet with the traditional rulers and president generals of all communities in Anambra State. They can help us in sensitising their people especially in the area of mobilising them whenever we visit their communities to educate the masses on fire safety measure and management.
What are other safety measures to curb fire incidence at homes and offices?
This is very important question especially now we are in harmattan period. The heat is so much that if you leave anything at home it will become hot before you know it. It makes even the fans to brow on hot airs while rotating. What we do is to tell people that 80% of fire incident in caused by bush fire. We tell them to cut and clear the bushes around their office, markets, churches, and other institutions. If you detach your buildings away from bushes, fire will find it difficult to touch it when it gets closer to your wall. Try to clear it even when the bush is not yours.
Again, users of cooking gas: People must know that cooking gas has an expiring date. I mean the gas cylinder. But people don’t know. I hope to have time to educate people on this someday. But first, I like to tell people who are anxious of using cooking gas these days that there are some risks to it. It is true they go for it because of its economic values (less expensive). You will run into problem while using it if you are not careful. So the safety measure in using it is to make sure it is new one. Don’t buy the fairly used or those already painted or coated. They are old and you can’t tell the expiring date. They can explode. That is why sometimes you hear that gas cooker exploded. That is the cause. Then, check the hose that connects the gas cylinder to the burner whenever you want to make use of it. It is very important.
