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Edo State Commissioner for Communication and Orientation, Mr. Chris Osa Nehikhare, said that the state government had enough fire combating trucks to handle any fire outbreak in the state.
Nehikhare, who stated this while speaking with journalists on the Tuesday night fire outbreak at a shopping mall on Lagos Street, Benin City, urged residents to always allow fire combustion officers to always do their job whenever there was a fire incident.
The Commissioner lamented that had the hoodlums, who invaded the scene of Tuesday’s fire outbreak allowed the fire officers access to the scene, a lot of the property destroyed in the inferno would have been salvaged.
Nehikhare disclosed that there were about five fire fighting trucks in the Benin metropolis alone and assured that those could handle any emergency as they were equipped with modern fire fighting equipment. “Edo State Government purchased fire fighting vehicles for all the fire service points in the state. In Benin City, there are five such trucks.
One was also donated to the state by the Federal Fire Service, and one by the NDDC. “We have equally sent our firefighters on training on modern fire fighting practices and the personnel are well trained and equipped.
The problem is the members of the public, who usually crowd around fire scenes and prevent the fire officers from gaining access to the scenes.
“We, therefore, want to appeal to members of the public, especially the youths, not to allow themselves to be used to prevent professional firefighters from doing their job whenever there is a fire outbreak”, Nehikhare pleaded.
While condemning the act of looting during fire incidents, Nehikhare said such an act “is not just wicked, but totally ungodly that anyone would want to benefit from the misfortune of fellow human beings.”
On the rebuilding of the markets that got burnt in the past, he explained that the designs for the markets were ready and would be implemented according to the new city concept of the government.
“We already have the designs for the markets that got burnt in the past. The intention of the government is to make the markets to be in conformity with the concept of the new city of the government and that will be implemented shortly”, Nehikhare assured.
The commissioner, who expressed worries over the nature of fire outbreaks in markets in the state, especially during electioneering, cautioned that the state government would not leave any stone unturned to get at the roots of such incidents and prosecute those found to be behind such dastardly acts.
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Edo has enough equipment to combat fire outbreaks ― Commissioner
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