Controller General of the Federal Fire Service, Liman Ibrahim, has implored Nigerians to act as volunteer firefighters to curb fire menace in the country.
Ibrahim said this during the commissioning of one modern firefighting truck and two ambulances in Zaria, Kaduna State.
The deployed fire truck and ambulances were among the recently FFS acquired 20 life support ambulances and seven fire fighting trucks.
The CG said that if citizens on ground at fire scenes attended to fire before the arrival of fire firefighters, the excesses of fire menace will be curtailed.
“Nigerians should be auxiliary firefighters like in developed countries as that will help reduce the impact on us and reduce the number of fire outbreak,” he said.
According to him, “In developed countries in a situation where you have 50 firefighters, only 20 are on government payroll while the remaining 30 are volunteers.
“Before the arrival of firefighters, they are already doing something so the fire will jot spread but curtail it to its origin and control it.
“What is important in firefighting is control but many people don’t understand when we are controlling fire.
“When property C is on fire we need to protect property B and D so we lay emphasis more on the properties that are not on fire.
“Because what is on fire is already on fire so we are telling citizens to be auxiliary firefighters”.
