By Suzan Edeh, Bauchi
Towards mitigating a fire disaster in Bauchi State, the Bauchi state government has said that it is committed to mitigating recurring fire disasters and creating awareness on fire disasters, mitigation and response.
The State Commissioner of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management Hajiya Hajara Yakubu Wanka stated this in an opening remark at a stakeholder meeting that held at the ministry in Bauchi.
The stakeholders were drawn from both the federal and state fire services, the state line ministries, department and agencies, security agencies, professional bodies, CSOs, Media, market and transport associations.
The Commissioner said that there was the need to engage the stakeholders so that they can proffer solutions in that regard, adding that the main objective of the meeting was also for the stakeholders to brainstorm and come up with ideas and suggestions that will stem the tide of fire disasters in the State.
“Though we cannot completely stop fire disasters from happening, but we help in reducing occurrences to bearest minimum through massive awareness campaigns. Such awareness campaigns will assist in reorienting members of the public on basic precautionary measures and how they can save their lives if such disasters occur”.
“we are here to put heads together and come up with workable and realistic ways of managing fire disasters in Bauchi State”She said
She assured the stakeholders that His Excellency, Governor Bala Mohammed is passionate about seeing what the Stakeholders will offer as solutions to fire disasters.
While appreciating the effort of the Humanitarian Ministry for convening the stakeholder engagement activity, the State Commissioner of Health Dr. Sani Muhammad Dambam said that fire disasters most times comes with health concerns because of what victims go through during such disasters.
Dambam gave an insight into how the smoke in such disasters sometimes leads to loss of lives and advised victims to always lay low and crawl out to safety as saying “Smoke tend to bellow up and so, when victims walk straight, there is the tendency of massive in healing of smoke”.
He pledged the commitment of his ministry in supporting the initiative by the Humanitarian Ministry aimed at reducing fire disasters in the State.
There were advises from the stakeholders that mostly focused on weak awareness for the public, inadequate fire fighting trucks, accessibility of disaster areas, use of substandard electrical wirings, absence of simple emergency numbers and some other challenges.
At the end of the meeting, two subcommittees that include: resource mobilization and advocacy/awareness were formed with a mandate to develop a workable plan of action towards mitigating fire disasters in Bauchi State