As part of efforts to mitigate fire outbreak menace, the FCT Emergency Management Department (FEMD) has emphasized the need for critical awareness and joint enforcement, particularly in the transport sector, where fire extinguishers are crucial in preventing and responding to emergencies.
FEMD decried that the manipulative tactics used by some criminal minded individuals, such as illegally pressurizing the expired extinguisher to falsely indicate green gauge or filling them with substandard materials, which can fuel fires instead of suppressing them.
It adds: “In some cases these fraudsters use dry chemical powder(0,25kg instead of 0.9kg in a 10kg extinguisher), which constitutes a clear violation of the Nigeria Industrial standards(NIS).”
FEMD Ag Director General, Engr. Abdulrahman Mohammed, made this point when he led the recently inaugurated team of the Nigeria Fire Extinguisher Control (NFEC) and the Gas Explosion Prevention System (GEPS) to the Transport Secretariat of the FCT.
Abdulrahman, while introducing the newly inaugurated team to the secretariat, highlighted the importance of NFEC and GEPS in ensuring public safety.
Also speaking, NFEC/GEPS Coordinator, Mr. Benson Olatunji stressed the need for sensitization, joint stakeholders enforcement, and vendor training within the fire extinguisher and gas LPG value chain.
“Unsafe practices emanating from these practices pose a threat to national security and public safety.
“ The NFEC and GEPS initiative is a life-saving intervention for all hands to be on deck to achieve a safer society”, he said.
Responding, the Mandate Secretary of the FCT Transport Secretariat, Barrister Chinedum Elechi , who commended the initiative, expressed willingness to support the team, as his office was open to ideas that will promote public safety.
He said: “It’s disheartening to see a car burning on the road and people are helplessly watching with their supposed fire extinguishers in their hands but not functional”.
It was gathered that the visit demonstrates the FEMD’s proactive approach to coordinating NFEC and GEPS, engagement with stakeholders, in the promotion of safety in the FCT.
