30th November, 2022
By Olaide Ayinde
The Bauchi State Fire Service said that seven lives and property worth N112.5 million were lost to fire in the state between July and September 2022.
Also, the Service saved 46 lives and property worth N265.2 million in 66 fire incidents during the period under review.
This is contained in a fire incident statistics issued by the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the Service, Mr Abubakar Bala, on Wednesday in Bauchi.
He said that the data comprised domestic and industrial fire incidents, adding the service received 38 distress calls for fire incidents in homes with N108 million worth of property lost while N249.9 million others were saved.
Bala said three lives were lost in the process while 32 live streams had been saved.
He said that the service, in the past two months, also received 23 calls for ‘special service rescue’ with 14 lives saved and four lives lost.
The spokesperson added that a distress call of fire outbreaks was also received for the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) and other institutions.
“We received one distress call on a hotel fire incident, where we saved N400,000 worth of property while an estimated N200,000 worth of property was destroyed in the process.
“We also received two distress calls on shop fire incidents and saved N14.9 million worth of property and property worth N4.3 million lost in the period under review,” he said.
Bala attributed most of the fire incidents in the state to careless use of cooking gas and inferior electrical appliances.
He advised residents of the state to ensure the safekeeping of gas and chemicals as well as switch off electrical appliances when not in use to guard against fire outbreaks.
“Avoid the use of expired and leaking gas cylinders and desist from indiscriminate bush burning.
“Distance children from matches or lighter; avoid smoking in bed and ensure that you douse the filter in water before disposal so that it will not reignite,” he said. (NAN