The Federal Government has said it is planning to decentralize the fire service emergency response system.
This is to improve the response time to emergencies in the country.
The Minister of Interior, Bunmi Tunji-Ojo, who has been inspecting the facilities of various paramilitary organisations under his watch since Wednesday, said this to journalists in his office on Friday.
He said the Federal Government was planning to have firefighting trucks stationed at every economic zone in the country.
According to him, the plan when executed would help reduce billions of naira lost to fire disasters in the country.
He said: “We will do everything humanly possible to decentralise the emergency response system. I am happy to see the mobile trucks. If we have more in our economic zones, our markets as first responders, it will be good. It will be very disastrous if there is fire in the markets and there is no immediate response.”
He also promised that the personnel of the Fire Federal Service would be adequately trained in how to handle modern equipment.
Tunji-Ojo said: “The responsibility of government is the protection of lives and property. This government is alive to its responsibility and we will provide you with firefighting appliances to do your job.
“In terms of capacity building, our training schools will no longer be dumping grounds. We will train and retrain our officers in modern techniques and equip them accordingly.”
Speaking, the Controller-General, Federal Fire Service, Jaji Abdulganiyu, said inadequate manpower and fund had been the major challenges faced by his organisation.
He said: “Talking about challenges, permit me also to acquaint you with some of them. They are inadequate manpower; attacks on firefighters; housing needs for personnel; firefighting infrastructural gaps; and budgetary constraints among others.
“We’re confident that you will use the might and influence of your good office to help resolve some if not all of our issues.”
