Fire Outbreaks: The Other Issues By Salako Tijani
Often, when fire incident erupted, succinctly, analyst and their analysis are centered on the valuers of good and property that were lost in the process of the ranging hazard, financial estimation will be made, forensic cause will be evaluated, government policies and modalities during the trialling moment and other sort of analysis and vows will definitely follow suit.
The natural hazard, Lagos, Ibadan are often engulfed and are constant victims of this horrible tragedy, perhaps due to the metropolitan clustered, change in weather climate or even the non-challant of individuals who are direct victims of the incident.
Negatively, the fire incident affect myriads of functions, testing the sustainability of the building, the health and psychological detriment on the direct victims, the enormous economic and social impact among other challenges that are handy with the outbreak.
Holistically, when a building is attacked by fire, either naturally or by individuals negligence, the building sustainability is directly affected, which in turn affects the surrounding environment and the welfare of the entire neighbouring communities. Therefore, the hazard peregrinate with fire outbreaks need to be critically address effigently and efficiently.
Then, this will drive us to many provocative thought that needs to be answered by the building experts and the entire construction sector, especially the architectural gurus.
It’s pertinent to be abreast that for every building has a fire outbreaks measure that needs to be incorporated since the inception of drawing of an house plan, however, the awareness campaign about this punitive measures on fire safety practices, prevention and suppression techniques plus the provision of adequate firefighting equipment are extremely low.
Meanwhile, the theory of fire outbreak otherwise known as Fire Triangle Theory (FTT) elucidated that, “the three elements required for a fire to erupt are: Fuel, Oxygen, and Heat.” The forensic fact by government expert on fire outbreaks usually focus on poor electrical connections, Gas leakage, Indiscriminate burning of garbages, therefore notable attention needs to be shifted to the fire protection systems in building as fire safety is a crucial aspect that management must address to minimize the risk of injuries or deaths.
More so, the provocative thought was then now, to what extent does architect and other construction experts consult the fire-officers for fire protection systems when drawing housing plans ? Meanwhile, high-rise building is continually been constructed for stores and offices, residential apartments and host of other buildings without adequate fire building protection systems into consideration.
Logically, there are myriads of built industry experts both for government and private, several estate agent, the realtors, practitioners and property management also known as housing agents, whom in one turn or the other overs sees the process of building from the land topology and it topography, to construction.
Rationally, the state of high rise building in Lagos especially, should have a good fire hazard protection system, failure to handle fire incident in either low or high rise building is not always due to inadequate fire protection installed in the building and this gives a thought that to what extent does the fire service agency advocates and campaign for fire protection from the start of any construction.
The theory further elucidated that to prevent fire outbreaks one or more of the three elements must be removed “Without heat, oxygen and fuel a fire will not start or spread. A key strategy to prevent fire is to remove one or more of heat, oxygen or fuel.”
Succinctly, some of the problems related to fire protection in buildings are problems of law enforcement, lack of automatic systems, poor planning, maintenance, and management of fire safety issues. Preventing fire incidents in buildings contributes to preserving the functioning and existence of the building itself. The three components that support building sustainability are environmental, social, and economic aspects and this needs to be respected.
It’s then mandatory for the Nigeria Fire Service Commission to intensify collaboration with these BCPG, NIA, REDAN, NIESV, ESVARBON and other building experts and institutions on the building protection systems law and to ensure that the process of campaign is seamless for the built industry and not in jeopardy of the building sustainability.
