Federal Fire Service plans campaign against fake fire extinguishers

The Federal Fire Service says it will soon embark on an aggressive grassroots consumer sensitisation campaign to educate the public on the hazards of using substandard fire extinguishers.

In a statement issued in Abuja on Monday, the Controller-General of the service, Mr Anebi Garba, said the campaign was to discourage indiscriminate importation, sales and use of substandard fire extinguishers.

He said the campaign, entitled “Vehicle Fire Safety Campaign’’, would go across the country to sensitise the public, especially the motorists, to how to handle vehicle fire incidents.

“This is part of efforts to enlist the support of Nigerians, particularly importers and vendors of fire extinguishers in the fight against fake and substandard fire extinguishers,’’ the statement quoted Garba as saying.

‎The controller-general observed that inadequate enlightenment campaign had further increased the rate of incidences of fire outbreak across the country.

He said arbitrary importation, unauthorised vendors of fire extinguisher and lack of technology that would enable the public to identify genuine fire extinguishers, had caused loss of lives and property to fire.

He said that efforts had been put in place to provide product verification platform that would help the public to detect fake fire extinguishers.

According to him, the efforts will also stimulate other law enforcement agencies to comply with fire fighting procedures in commercial places, homes, offices, markets and vehicles.