The Kaduna State Fire Service on Wednesday said it recorded 54 fire outbreaks and nine deaths from August to September ending.
The Director of the Service, Mr Paul Aboi, revealed that its personnel within the period rescued 14 persons unhurt in fire incidents while 17 others sustained different degrees of injury.
He attributed the fire incidents to carelessness, misuse of electrical equipment, cooking gas explosion among others.
Aboi said most of the fire incidents recorded occurred in Kaduna, the state capital; Zaria and Kafanchan.
He, however, said that the fire service was able to arrive at most of the scene of fire incidents promptly due to good road network constructed by the state government.
” I want to commend residents of the state for not attacking fire trucks when they arrive to put out fires,” the fire chief said.
Aboi appealed to residents to always be fire conscious and avoid overloading electrical sockets.
He also advised residents to immediately seek for assistance from the Service whenever there was any emergency, stressing that there were fires which differed putting out with just water.
“There are certain fires you cannot use ordinary water to quench. That is why we advise that the victims should immediately call us when there is an outbreak,’’ he said.
The fire service chief also appealed to the state government to equip the service with necessary working tools and establish fire stations in the local government areas in the state where fire stations are unavailable.