Lagos, Borno record 314 fire incidents in 2013

THE Lagos State Fire Service said it recorded 193 fire incidents from December 2013 to January 7.
  The Director of the Service, Mr. Rasak Fadipe, made this known to newsmen yesterday in Lagos.
Fadipe said the last incident occurred on January 7 at about 3.08 a.m. at Sawmill Market, Ipaja, Lagos.
  He said that 11 lock-up shops out of about 150 shops in the market were destroyed by fire.
  Fadipe said the shops destroyed contained planks, paints, chemicals, woodcutting machines and other building materials.
  According to him, it took men of the service about four hours to put out the fire.
  “The fire spread faster due to the harmattan season. I advise members of the public to be careful with anything that can cause fire fast. The fire took us longer time to put out due to sawdust and chemicals in the market,” Fadipe said.
  In Maiduguri, the Department of Borno Fire Service (DBFS) yesterday said that a total of 121 fire outbreaks occurred in Maiduguri, the state capital, with no loss of lives in 2013.
  Speaking yesterday in an interview with newsmen on “effects of harmattan on fire outbreaks,” the Director of DBFS, Alhaji Musa Hussaini, warned residents against the use of charcoal in cooking and heating their houses during the harmattan season that has already commenced last year in the North.
  His words: “In as much the harmattan season has continued to bite harder with cold winds and dust, it could trigger any fire outbreak in the state. And we thank God, as no life was lost in the 121 fire outbreaks we recorded last year in Maiduguri metropolis. The people using charcoal to heat their rooms, including cooking in the open by some housewives, should be stopped, because the North Easterlies winds, associated with harmattan dust could easily trigger fire outbreaks, as experienced last month in three wards of
Maiduguri.”
  He said the Fire Service Department was working round the clock in protecting the lives and property of citizens in the state.

From Njadvara Musa (Maiduguri) and Adeniyi Idowu Adunola (Lagos)