The Federal Fire Service (FFS), says it has 120 state of the art fire facilties to effectively respond to fire outbreaks nationwide.
The FFS Public Relations Officer, Mr Abraham Paul, told the News Agency (NAN) on Sunday in Abuja that the service had witnessed tremendous improvements under President Muhammadu Buhari.
“Globally, we may not have measured up to expectations when you talk about international best standard but locally, we are not doing badly.
“I will say very clearly, before the present administration, it is no longer news that we had only three appliances, very old and rickety, two in Lagos and one in Abuja.
“But since the present administration came into power, the service can boast of over 120 state of the art fire appliances,“ Paul added.
He said that this had enabled them to respond effectively to most fire calls nationwide.
“I can say at the moment, we have 80 per cent response to fire incidents when you put it at 100 per cent, this is due to the modern equipment we have at the moment,” he said.
The spokesman said the fire fighting equipments were deployed to all the 36 states of the federation.
“Today, the service has fire stations in all the states of the federation, as well as 13 zonal commands across the country.
“These zones supervised some states. For instance, Zone G, with Zonal Headquarter in Minna, supervises Niger, Kwara and Kogi.
“Also, under the present administration, we are building 13 metropolitan fire stations which will also be spread across the zones.
“Before now, we had only one fire Training Academy, called the National Fire Academy in Sheda, Abuja, with an annex in Lagos.
“But as I am talking to you now, we have six apart from those two training schools spread across the six geopolitical zones. One in Kankia, Katsina State for North-West, Maiduguri, North-East and Oshogbo, South-West.
“Also, one is in Calabar, South-South, Umuahia, South-East and one in Ilorin, North-Central. So, in all we have six additional training schools added to the two existing ones before 2015.“
According to the spokesman, the FFS also has 22 basic life support ambulances, 20 water tenders, five rapid intervention vehicles and two super fire fighting bikes.
On quick response to emergencies, he said the 22 basic life support ambulances and paramedics have been rendering instant assistance and evacuation of fire victims to hospitals.
The FFS spokesman said that the equipments have been very effective in containing reported fire outbreaks.
“They are actually in line with modern trends. Our appliances today are carrying almost 10,000 litres of extinquishing elements with a plant right on top of it in case of high rise buildings.
“So far, they have been very effective and rugged in nature,“the spokesman added.
Paul however said that the service require more facilities to be deployed to all the 774 local government areas in the country. (NAN)
