Mr Rasak Dawudu, the Managing Director, Fire Inhibitors and Safety Limited, on Friday called on the three tiers of government to ensure public buildings have fire prevention facilities installed within them.
Dawudu told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos that fire prevention measures should be structured into the building code.
He said that the government should also make it compulsory for all public buildings to have firefighting equipment in place.
“I will implore the government to include a policy in the building code that all public buildings must have preventive measures such as fire panel system that can forestall fire outbreak.
“They should also ensure that smoke detectors and alarms are installed in public buildings to guide against potential fire outbreak and to enable people in such buildings escape.
“Fire does not kill contrary to popular beliefs, it is the smoke inhalation that kills,’’ he said.
The fire expert said tools such as fire extinguisher were only needed when there was a fire incident.
“An extinguisher cannot prevent a fire neither can it detect a fire, but the best thing it can do is to minimize the damage which is the aftermath.
“The focus has to be on prevention and detection.
“We can prevent it by taking all the precautions before leaving our environments and making precautions the last thing at the end of the day.
“All socket points must be switched off as the major causes of most fire incident are power surge, and major units that cause power surge are the air cooling units in houses,’’ he said.
Dawudu said that about nine out of 10 fire incidents were traced to power surge which could be prevented.
“Having a smoke alarm or detector can also assist in giving early warnings against imminent fire outbreak and get prepared to avert the danger of fire.
“Smoke alarm is critical for the early detection of a fire in your home and can mean the difference between life and death.
“Fires can occur in a variety of ways and in any room of your home.
“About two-thirds of home fire-deaths occur in homes with no working smoke alarms,’’ he said.
He also encouraged schools, offices and business outlets to install smoke detectors to save lives and properties.