Alas, our society now looks very much like a train out of control, crashing everything on its route while its beleaguered and bemused passengers scream wide-eyed with terror. Last week, it was water; this week, it is fire. A devastating fire that broke out early Sunday gutted shops at Kara Market in Kebbi State, destroying property estimated to be worth hundreds of millions. I believe that every fire outbreak in a market, school, church, plaza or any similar place is a call for action. We must not relent in learning about fire safety in public places.
Officials from the Kebbi State Ministry of Lands confirmed that over nine shops, primarily housing wood and timber, were completely destroyed in the fire. Authorities suspected an electrical fault as the possible cause of the blaze, noting that power outages followed by sudden returns may have triggered the inferno. Apparently, wood, being an incendiary material, was quick to be ignited. Therefore, in a world where climate change increases atmospheric dryness, we need to reassess the structural alignments of physical marketplaces in our clime.
Speaking to journalists at the scene, Deputy Governor Umar Tafida, on behalf of Governor Nasir Idris, while announcing a donation to affected traders, urged shop owners to take required precautions to prevent future incidents. Again, the necessary questions are, what precautions exactly should shop owners take? Whose responsibility is it to impart this knowledge? What concrete rule of thumb must the Nigerian business owner imbibe as a matter of procedure to survive in a fire-hazardous environment?
This is because one thing an observant citizen would easily note is the rate at which market fire disasters befall the country. It is in the news, day in and day out. No part of the country is spared. The states with large populations, such as Lagos, seem to have more incidents of such infernos. The news screams the same headlines: goods burnt, shops razed, markets destroyed, and a few people dead!
Yet, we do not hear of fire drills in our markets. Certainly, if we are serious about fighting the fire, then we must inculcate such a crucial safety culture in the same way we have assimilated general cleanliness and carried out the traditional weekly market environmental sanitation. Similarly, we also have the religious tradition of weekly or daily prayer sessions. So, one is wont to ask, is it not time for us to face our problems squarely by doing all in our power to be ready for unforeseen fire incidents? This, of course, cannot be done by mere wishful thinking. It can only be achieved through strategic action and general involvement.
For starters, instead of hanging up only our denominational or faith-based talismans and mementoes in strategic corners of our shops and business centres for safety and security, let us also strap up fire protection equipment, such as sprinkler systems, alarms and suppression equipment.
Fires are a common occurrence, and we usually get them more than we bargained for. It is not a matter of saying God forbid. For instance, those timber shops that got burned at Kara Market would have been spared had the owners installed sprinklers of any sort. A wet wood cannot burn. To be sure, if a public space is not furnished with the proper fire safety equipment, personal injuries (and even fatalities) are possible. Globally, some of the most common causes of fires in public places include heating, cooking, and electrical equipment. Over here, traders hide inside their shops to cook food, boil water, or tidy sundry tradecrafts with electrical equipment.
Secondly, fire alarms are one of the simplest fire safety solutions that can prevent catastrophic injuries. They alert people and the authorities that there is a fire. Early detection is vital to ensure everyone gets out safely. Public spaces should be equipped with early detection equipment, including alarm systems and emergency radio communication systems. Importantly, they are not just to be installed as decorations or statutory gadgets, but these systems should be regularly inspected to ensure optimal function.
Thirdly, fire protection for public spaces should be a multi-layered approach consisting of an alarm system, a clear evacuation route, and a fire suppression system. A fire suppression system is triggered by smoke or heat. These systems can keep a fire from spreading to other building areas and may include a sprinkler system, handheld extinguishers, and other equipment. A trained professional should regularly inspect these systems to ensure compliance.
Fourthly, as a country reeling from economic hardship, we must deliberately take a fire outbreak as an opportunity to create jobs at the local level. The point I am trying to make here is that every problem could be seen as an opportunity for job creation and value addition to the evolution of society. The markets could hire their teams of firefighters as first responders or fire safety consultants, just the same way they hire security teams and private guards.
Fifthly, the market unions must look towards fire insurance. This is a culture that we are not very familiar with in this clime, but the recurring fire incidents call for the review of this status quo. There are several packages of insurance that could be tried to help the people in the commercial enclaves have a fallback plan when a fire disaster strikes.
Those who die by suicide and those who find themselves back to square one can now have hope for living and be able to pick up the pieces of their lives. Insurance culture is even more necessary now that our society is becoming more individualistic, as opposed to when community help was easily available to people who were faced with personal injury or misfortune.
Sixthly, there is an opportunity to turn towards renewable energy and use the opportunity to fight climate change. This is because most of the fire incidents in Nigeria are caused or exacerbated by storing fuel in shops or using fuel in the vicinity of the market. The shops and markets can install solar panels for individual shops or on an independent power production basis. There are opportunities in this when the government gives appropriate support and bans the use or storage of inflammable fuel in market environments.
Lastly, I think we must recognise the significance of timber shops burning up in Northern Nigeria. This has added a great burden to the nation, unlike if the fire had occurred in the southern part of the country. Just like in the other frontline states of Northern Nigeria, deforestation is a central problem for Kebbi State. Wood is a scarce resource, and as desertification and deforestation intensify, it may become totally unaffordable. In other words, forest resources are akin to precious stones.
We have been taking from Mother Earth without making conscious efforts to replenish her. Her plumage is getting thinner, and she is now exposed to the harsh elements. The forest we once took for granted is vanishing at an alarming speed. There used to be natural forest cover everywhere you looked, and we cut them down to erect our concrete jungles without replanting or renewing. Now, the little we snatched from her, we lost.
Nigeria’s forest area has been on a continuous decline from 10 to less than eight per cent today, demonstrating that about 400,000 hectares of forest are lost yearly through human activities and other practices that are unsustainable. Hence, to urgently reverse this ugly trend, we must explore the social, cultural and economic values of forestry, and put all hands on deck to achieve our national forest policy and increase total forest cover from 10 to 25 per cent.
