The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) on Wednesday called for collaboration of the Federal Capital Territory Fire Service (FCT-FS) to enable it to promptly respond to emergencies.
Mr Samuel Bitrus, Head of Abuja Operation Office, NEMA, made the call in Abuja when he led officials of the agency on a courtesy visit to the fire service office.
Bitrus described the service as a key stakeholder in the area of emergency responses, hence, the need to work together to prevent losses and protection of properties.
According to him, the FCT Fire Service is a critical organisation to NEMA.
“Without it, NEMA’s response to emergency may not be completed, if there are no working relationship between the two agencies within the territory.
“NEMA functions through fire service agency, and it is important that we collaborate because of what is happening now in the FCT over incidences of fire outbreak.
“The frequency of fire disaster is much, and fire service is the lead agency as far as this is concerned.
“NEMA is also the lead in flood disasters and building collapse, moreso, we are going into the flood season soon.
“It is, therefore, important that we collaborate and work together to operate on the same page.
“We have to operate together; we don’t want to wait until fire incidents start to happen, so we need to begin the collaboration now.
“We have always work in collaboration with FCT Fire Service.
“But, today’s visit is to strengthen our earlier agreement; it is just a reminder to tighten our bond for effective cooperation in terms of response to disaster,” he said.
Responding, the Acting Director, FCT Fire Service, Mr Sani Sa’idu, said that the two organisations were just like twins in terms of response to disasters.
Sa’idu said that the two organisations would work together to ensure the protection of lives and property, particularly for that of residents of the Federal Capital.
He expressed displeasure over the residents’ attitude to disasters, wondering why people don’t call emergency numbers in times of emergencies.
Sa’idu said that his office would push for laws to compel all residential and corporate buildings within FCT to have emergency numbers of disasters’ response organisations pasted on their buildings to make it easy for them to call during emergency.
The acting director said that such idea would compel emergency officers like the fire officers to do their works.
The service, therefore, made available to the public its functional emergency numbers: 07003283473, 08103559512, 08103826117, 09069690707 and 07039374772. (NAN)
