23rd December, 2021
By Olatunde Ajayi
The Vice-Chancellor, University of Lagos (UNILAG), Prof. Oluwatoyin Ogundipe, has stressed the need for a proactive approach to fire safety.
In a statement following the 2021 UNILAG Fire Service maiden fire prevention lecture, the VC condemned the reactionary approach to fire incidents in many parts of Nigeria.
The 2021 Fire prevention lecture was tagged: “Proactive Fire Protection in Our Society”.
He noted that while the university’s Fire Services Unit had been working exceptionally hard to ensure safety, it would be great if there were no fires to battle, hence the need for a proactive unit.
Mr Ojelabi Ademola, Guest Speaker and the Assistant Chief Operations Officer, Oyo State Fire and Rescue Services Agency, identified three major stakeholders in the fire safety process as the government, fire fighting agencies and people.
He reiterated the need for each of the stakeholders to be more careful and be more committed to their duties with a view to averting the grievous consequences and gruesome loses which could result from fire incidents.
The President, Fire Protection Association of Nigeria, Mr Sheu Dambata, said that fire safety was the ability to introduce technology to fire fighting.
He noted that if the appropriate technology was not put in place, loss of lives and property to fires becomes inevitable.
He advised that, for every building constructed on the university campus, a fire expert be assigned to them as part of building design to provide proper advice on fire safety.
Dambata equally advocated that 5% of the building costs be assigned to putting in place for fire safety and prevention measures.
The Director, Medical Services, UNILAG, Dr Olayinka Coker, warned against the health implications of fire outbreaks.
These included: asthma, damage to the lungs, heart diseases, various types of cancer caused by air pollution during bush burning or fire outbreak.
He said the dangers also included harmful crops being produced as a result to absorption of harmful substances from the soil (land pollution) which sometimes led to the death of human beings and animals.
Mr Jimoh Wasiu, Acting Head, Fire Services Unit at UNILAG, also said that only one major fire outbreak and 15 minor fire outbreaks were recorded for year 2021.
He attributed the development to the unit’s proactiveness through the organisation, sensitisation/awareness campaigns and trainings for members of the university community.