The spate of fire incidents has recently increased in the country with about 50 fire outbreaks recorded in a space of one week and 40 of them occurring in Lagos State alone.
For instance, one of the major fire outbreaks occured at a plastic factory in Oshodi, Lagos, last Sunday, where the state Commissioner for Special Duties and Intergovernmental Relations, Seye Oladejo, said the state had recorded about 40 fire incidents since Friday, February 17, 2022
On the same day, fire razed about nine shops at a popular estate roundabout market in Warri, Delta State.
A day earlier, valuable properties worth millions of naira were said to have been destroyed in an inferno that razed the Edo State secretariat of the National Youth Service Corps in Benin, Edo State.
Also, Director, Anambra State Emergency Management, Chief Paul Odenigbo, recently said 13 buildings, 16 vehicles, three tricycles and two filling stations were razed in a fire incident involving a fuel tanker in Onitsha last Wednesday.
He added that two bookshops, an eatery, law offices, residential houses, and many shops were also affected in the incident, where properties estimated to be worth millions of naira were destroyed.
However, investigations have shown that fire service stations across the country are essentially lacking in capacity to combat fire outbreaks and are mostly in a state of disrepair.
