Stop attacking firemen, director warns Lagosians

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By Emmanuel Udom

The Lagos State Fire Service Director, Rasak Fadipe, on Wednesday appealed to the public to stop attacking firemen while carrying out their legitimate duties.
Fadipe made the appeal in Alausa-Ikeja during the celebration of International Firefighters’ Day to mark firemen that died during the cause of their duties.
He noted that many of his men were often attacked by the public, claiming that the firemen came late to the scene of incident.
“The challenge we have is that people don’t always call firemen in time; they would have been making effort to rescue the situation.
“They only call when the situation is out of control. The public must know this; even if they have a situation they can control, particularly fire.
“They must call the firemen first while they are battling with it. It is better the firemen come to the scene and the fire has been put out by them, than calling us when it is out of hand,” he urged.
Fadipe said that every local government in Lagos has a fire station, stressing that the timely information would save lives and properties.
He said that attacking firemen would worsen the situation, stressing that they must always make way for fire truck in time to the scene of accident.
The director said between January and April 2016, the service responded to more than 500 fire incidents, noting that April alone had about 109 incidents.
Fadipe said that the service lost one fireman in the last one year during duty activity, urging the public to always support the firemen.
He pay tribute to all firemen worldwide that died on duty, including the five Australians, the 9/11 men in America, those in Nigeria and others.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that as part of activities to mark the day, the firemen in Lagos, led by Fadipe had an enlightenment road-show through some major roads.
The theme for this year was “Stop attack on firefighters…the unsung heroes”.