By Politico Staff Writer
The Sierra Leone Fire Force has warned citizens to be careful with fire outbreak, citing likelihood of an increase in fire disasters in the country..
The National Fire Force Divisional Officer, Bintu Fatmata Kamara in a media engagement on the 18th November in Freetown warned that the fire outbreaks tend to spread easily during the dry season due to more wind gusts in the atmosphere. She also warned those living in disaster-prone areas to be cautious.
“I want to tell people that they should be more careful, especially, this time of the season, because we are presuming to have more fire incidents now than any other time.
People living in these disaster prone areas, should be very much careful and cautious in the way they carry out their activities, in order to prevent fires,” she advised.
She noted that the in the Harmattan period between November and Mid-March if fire breaks out in disaster prone areas, it becomes very much cumbersome for fire officers to go to those places and remedy the situation. She advised people to refrain from smoking while in bed, switch off their consumer units when away from home, and stop overloading electrical appliances and extensions.
She also urged people to use one extension per electrical appliance consumption, and seek professional electrical services repairing connections in homes after certain years.
The Fire Force Officer encouraged people to ensure that they’re equipped with fire extinguishers in their houses in case of fire emergencies and equally advised everyone to have smoke detectors alongside fire extinguishers in homes or offices.
“The extinguisher will help a lot for you to take the practical approach because, when once there is an incident, you will be able to combat the fire even before you call the fire service,” she said.
She reiterated that, by having an extinguisher and a smoke alarm installed at home, it will save people from fire up to 70 to 80%. She went on to say that, the smoke alarm will signal a warning that something is about to go wrong.
She urged the public to always call them on time to report fire incidents.
Copyright © 2022 Politico Online (21/11/22)
