By Seun Adams
The Minister of Interior Dr. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, has charged members of the Fire Fighting Service to refocus their modus operandi to fire prevention rather than fighting fire.
The Minister made the disclosure at the commissioning of 15 rapid response fire fighting vehicles and 6 heavy fire fighting trucks in Abuja
The Minister challenged officers and men of the service to roll their sleeves for work, stating that the era of work is now, inline with the renewed hope agenda of the President.
He challenged authority of the fire service that their operations should go beyond fire fighting, that the service must also forecast for impending fire out break and other disaster.
He said attention must be given to prevention, rather than fire fighting.
“Your responsibilities must go beyond fire fighting, you have to plan and be able to forecast danger to prevent occurrence of disaster.” He said.
The Minister stated this on Wednesday at the commissioning of fire fighting vehicles at the Headquarters of Federal Fire Service, Abuja.
Tunji-Ojo, also implored the FFS that its fire institute would not only be personnel training alone, it must integrate training of fire rescuers, who would be deployed to man commercial and public buildings to ensure compliance with fire sefety mechanism.
He said; this is necessary because fire fighting is closely related with development, stating that the country cannot continue to pay lip service for the fight.
The commissioned fire trucks have the ability to
navigate through narrow spaces in the market and residential areas.
The Controller General of Federal Fire Service, Engr. Jaji Abdulganiyu in his welcome remarks said the Minister had shifted the paradigm, awakened the determination of the fire men to pursue the vision and reset the goals for expectations and achievements of the service in line with the renewed hope agenda of President Bola Tinubu’s administration and it’s service delivery policy thrust.
He commended the Minister for his visionary leadership and efforts to modernize the services with the state of arts equipment and data harmonization to raise the bar of internal security and citizenship integrity for Nigerians to have a sweet experience.
