Fire outbreak and firefighters in Nigeria
The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) in Lagos has warned Lagosians about obstruction of emergency personnel on duty, drawing attention to a fire outbreak in Olodi-Apapa yesterday in which one person was killed and another injured.
In a statement in Lagos, Ibrahim Farinloye, NEMA’s Information Officer for the South West, regretted that danger to the life of emergency workers in Lagos is rising.
He drew attention to the attack on firemen against at the scene where Area Boys obstructed the efforts of the firemen and struggled to collect their equipment from them.
“This is making the third assault on the men of fire service [within three weeks] - at Ketu plank market, a fireman was critically wounded and was admitted, similarly, at the Alade Market, the street boys destroyed the firefighting instrument while trying to take over the fire fighting from the Firemen.”
Farinloye said that the refusal of Lagosians to allow emergency workers free access to disaster scenes for prompt response is getting complicated and the problem of crowd milling around disaster scenes is making intervention difficult and uncontrollable.
The spokesman added that “public and private motorists” compound emergency efforts by ignoring the sirens of emergency vehicles and obstructing the movement of emergency responders.
“It is pertinent to state that emergency workers are human beings who have families and will be mindful of their safety as they are struggling to save others' lives,” he said. “Therefore, threatening their safety will highly jeopardize their eagerness to respond to disaster in future if there is attitudinal change (sic) by the Nigerians.”
Statement by NEMA Spokesman:
Fire disaster occurrence on sunday night at about 7:30 p.m at Agbe Street, Olodi Apapa Lagos has led to the death of one person and injured another . The threats life of emergency workers in Lagos are incresing daily with the attack on Firemen against at the scene yesterday during the intervention. The firemen were trying to fight the fire from the base while the street boys were controlling the firemen to fight the fire the top and the boys struggled to collect the firehose and attacked the professional firemen in the process. This is making the third assault on the men of fire service with 3 weeke - at Ketu plank market, a fireman was critically wounded and was admitted, similarly, at the Alade Market, the street boys destroyed the firefighting instrument while trying to take over the fire fighting from the Firemen.
The refusal of Lagosians to allow emergency workers have free access to disaster scenes for prompt response is getting complicated and the problem of crowd milling around disaster scenes is making intervention difficult and uncontrollable yesterday
Public and private motorists are compounding the situation by ignoring the emergency vehicle sirens and obstructing the movement of emergency responders across the state.
It is pertinent to state that emergency workers are human beings who have families and will be mindful of their safety as they are struggling to save others' lives. Therefore, threatening their safety will highly jeopardize their eagerness to respond to disaster in future if there is attitudinal change by the Nigerians.
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