The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has begun the sensitisation of residents in the southeastern part of the country to the need to check fire outbreaks as the dry season approaches.
The South-East Zonal Coordinator of NEMA, Mr Fred Anusim, made this known to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Enugu on Wednesday.
According to Anusim, the aim is to ensure the residents have pro-active plans to tackle fire incident before it escalates.
He said that the agency had written to all fire responding agencies as well as state governments in the zone on the sensitisation and the need to key into the Federal Government initiative.
The coordinator noted that the recent Onitsha fire incident and its impact was a wake-up call to all to put a proactive mechanism in place to prevent future reoccurrence and ensure rapid response to any fire incident.
“NEMA, as the lead disaster and emergency agency, is taking the lead to sensitise state governments, federal and state agencies and organisations as well as individuals to do the needful on time.
“NEMA will meet all the governors in the zone to get their fire-fighting equipment and stations ready.
“We are also going to meet the various federal and states’ fire service, State Emergency Management Agency, Federal Road Safety Corps, Police, Red Cross Society as well as safety/fire disaster mitigation community-based organizations, etc.
“The agency is poised to ensure that a replica of Onitsha fire, which was man-made, does not occur again within the zone,’’ he said.
The NEMA chief revealed that the agency would hold its first fire disaster response and emergency personnel stakeholders’ meeting for Enugu State before the end of the week.
He appealed to media organisations to assist NEMA in sensitising the people against the impact of fire outbreak; leaving electrical appliances on after work and needless bush burning as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).
