Decontamination exercise incident: We notified school ahead of time to avoid casualties-Fire Service

By Tobias Lengnan Dapam

The authorities of the Federal Fire Service (FFS), said it sent a letter to the School of Health Science and Technology, Ijero Ekiti, about its decontamination exercise ahead of time to avoid casualties.

The agency in a statement issued on Friday by Ugo Huan, Public Relations Officer, to debunk reports that the agency did not give the school a heads up specifically said the letter was issued on the 14th day of May, 2021.

Meanwhile, some online platforms reported that the Covid-19 Response Team of the Federal Fire Service invaded the School of Health Science and Technology, Ijero Ekiti without the permission of the school authority and unprofessionally carried out decontamination of the school environment.

The report added that the exercise affected the health of the students leading to the hospitalisation of some.

But the FFS said, “a letter was sent to the School management, notifying them that the Federal Fire Service Covid – 19 Response Team in the State will be coming to the School to carry out decontamination exercise and there is need for students and staff to vacate the premise for a period of 30 minutes that the decontamination will last as that has been the usual practice in other places where our men have carried out decontamination exercises without any incidence.

“The letter was acknowledged by the school and permission was also granted. The COVID-19 Desk Officer called the Registrar of the Institution on the day the team was to visit the school to inform him of their coming to which permission was also granted by the Registrar to them.

“When they got to the school the team met with the Registrar and other management staff in the Registrar’s office where they still reiterated the need for the students and staff to vacate the school premises and were assured by the Registrar that students and staff have been informed of the exercise and were well out of reach as required by the safety directives.

“Trouble started 15 minutes after the decontamination exercise started with reports that some students had collapsed due to the adverse effect of the decontamination exercise. Our men immediately stopped the decontamination, but by then the students came attacking our men almost lynching them, it took the intervention of the school security who took them to the registrar’s office and later were whisked away by armed police officers of the Rapid Response Team.

“The Federal Fire Service, Ekiti State Command, commander was later invited to Ekiti State Government house where he briefed the Governor of the State, His Excellency, Governor Kayode Fayemi on what transpired.

“We want to categorically state that, the Federal Fire Service has trained all its men involved in the decontamination exercise against the spread of Covid-19 in the wake of the outbreak of Covid- 19. The Service in partnership with the ministry of environment flagged of the decontamination exercise.

Presently the Service has established a Covid- 19 Response Team in all its State Commands made up of well trained staff and representatives of Environmental Health Officers Association of Nigeria (EHOAN) and Environmental Officers Registration Council of Nigeria (EHORECON) in the handling of chemical used for the decontamination exercise.”