The FCT Fire Service has advised Embassies and organisations in the country, to ensure strict compliance with fire safety standards to forestall unnecessary fire outbreaks.
Mr Zacchaeus Adebayo, Acting Controller, FCT Fire Service, gave the advice in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday in Abuja.
Adebayo’s advice followed the fire incident at the Canadian Embassy on Monday which killed two persons and two others sustaining various degree of injuries.
Properties worth millions of naira destroyed were also destroyed in the inident.
He said that most fire outbreaks were as a result of avoidable human errors.
“When we got to the Canadian Embassy yesterday, we noticed that there was an installation of diesel tank inside the generator house, housing two generators at the same time.
“This as fire men feels falls far below international best practices if really anyone is to avoid unnecessary fire outbreak.
“So I urged all corporate organisations, especially our embassies to desist from such risky and dangerous practices henceforth, if our quest to avoid unnecessary fire outbreak is anything to go by.”
The controller said that the development has informed the service to immediately go round, not only the embassies but other important places to carryout out risk assessment to ensure safety.
He warned that the service may embark on sanctions against those who deliberately refused to comply with safety standards.
“So, let everybody at this period ensure that their premises are clean and free from all activities that can easily ignite fire.
“No indiscriminate bush burning, whether in the offices or around the residential areas as well as indiscriminate disposal of cigarettes remains.
“In short, there should be designated places to dispose of them for safety sake,” he said.
Adebayo advised that all safety measures in terms of use of appliances, such as electrical must be strictly adhered to, to avoid casualties of any nature.
“No overloading of electrical sockets, especially when there is power outage, as well as ensuring to switch off all electrical appliances and monitoring when not in use,” he said.
He said that service’s safety officers would be deployed to some offices, residential areas as well as communities within the FCT to sensitise them on safety measures.
According to him, all these efforts are geared toward ensuring that cases of fire outbreaks were managed to its barest minimum.
He said that investigations are on-going to unravel the cause of the fire outbreak at the Canadian embassy with a view to avoid further occurrence. (NAN)
