Always be at alert for emergency, Red Cross appeals to Fire agencies

The Anambra State Chairman, Nigeria Red Cross Society, Prof. Peter Katchy has appeal to Fire Service agencies across the country to always be at alert for fire outbreaks.

“Ensure that there are motorised fire-fighting services and water hydrants to take care of fire emergencies.

Prof. Katchy said this when he visited the site of inferno caused by an articulated truck laden with petrol in Onitsha, the commercial city of Anambra State, on Monday.

Nigerian Tribune has earlier reported that the fallen truck had spilled its content that caught fire at Onitsha Expressway opposite Toronto Hospital Limited.

The fire followed the spilled contents through the water channels to the popular Ochanja Market.

‘If you do not prepare for emergency, you cannot control and respond effectively to it. The first ingredient for emergency is the rapid response, Katchy frowned.

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“So, every fire-fighting equipment and human resources must be in place for the services to work effectively,’’ he said.

Prof Katchy said that a mother and her child were among those subsumed in the inferno, with a few others in a coma, while some, were revived at nearby hospitals. There are some other serious cases’’.

He adds, people’s goods, properties, and materials worth billions of naira were destroyed by fire’’.

The chairman, who said that the inferno could have been minor, but for the spilled gas that moved through water channels to reach Upper Iweka and Ochanja Market, about a kilometer, where it left devastation in its wake.

It was uncontrollable and overwhelmed every fire-fighting operation by the people. The incident is unfortunate, `a black Wednesday indeed’.

“The head of the tanker was seen at Auto Spareparts Area, down the flyover, about half a kilometer, from Toronto Hospital, where its trailer fell.

“It was terrible coincidence to have occurred on Oct.16, just three days after the World celebrated an International Day for Disaster Reduction on Oct. 13,’’ Katchy said.

Mr Joseph Ugwu, a trader in Ochanja said that the incident could not have got that bad if the traders did not display their goods on drainages.