…LNFS Boss blames Liberians for Liberia’s fire crises
The Director General of Liberia National Fire and Rescue Service (LNFS), Mr. G. Warsuwah Barvoul is of the opinion that that most of the fire outbreaks thathave occurred in the country are due to ignorance.
Mr. Barvoul made the statement at the launch of a fire preventive awareness campaign.
The launch of the fire preventive awareness is part of the observance of International Firefighters Day.
The fire preventive awareness campaign was launched by LNFS and its partner Orange Liberia on Thursday, May 2, 2024, in the Transformer Community, Old Road.
Firefighters Day is being celebrated under the theme: “Ensure fire Safety, Contribute Towards Nation Building”. The fire preventive awareness campaign or Fire Safety Week was launched on Thursday, May 2, 2024, in the Transformer Community, Old Road.
The objective of fire preventive awareness is to educate the public on how to prevent fire before, during, and after it has occurred. Mr. Barvoul giving the overview of the fire safety week at the launching ceremony said the awareness is to inform the public that there are three ways to fight fire, before, during, and after.
Mr. Barvoul said that before is the prevention aspect and it is very important because prevention is better than cure.
According to him, the most important part of fighting a fire is to prevent it because it will save houses from getting burned.
“If your house is gutted by the fire we come to extinguish the fire and after extinguishing the fire is what we refer to as during and after that, we come to access you to know what led to the fire outbreak; if somebody got injured or die there, we will want to have that record and if your property has an estimated cost, maybe if your house is insured through that you will get money to rebuild your house,” he said.
The LNFS boss maintained that the launch is to inform the people that there are three ways fire outbreak comes about. He disclosed that some of the ways fire outbreaks come about is through ignorance because people set things and don’t know that they will catch fire.
“Most of us will plug the extension cord because it has six outlets we will plug everything on it so when the current goes we just leave it as it is and when the current comes back all the appliances that are plugged into that cord the load will be heavy for it then there will be a spark and it will lead to fire; so like you standing here and I put five bags of rice on your head you will not be able to carry it so it is the extension cord,” he stated.
Additionally, Mr. Barvoul cautioned the residents of the Transformer Community to be very careful with the Liberia Electricity Corporation (LEC) current and whenever the current goes off they should unplug all of their appliances and put the double-took on neutral and when the current comes back they should wait for few minutes before putting the double-took on.
“For every time the current comes on you will see children in the communities shouting with excitement because current itself and our life is security. If this place is dark you will not be able to walk in the darkness to go anywhere but if there is current you will go far so if current comes wait for a few minutes before you put your double-trok on and start plugging your appliances one by one,” he cautioned residents of Transformer Community.
The LNFS boss noted that they also observed that people who live in zinc houses will cook and instead of cutting the coal off they will leave it and dump it by the house and put sand over it with the mind that it will go off but forgetting to know that as the breeze is blowing the coal will start burning and getting smaller in size and the sand will go in between and the zinc starts to get hot at setting temperature and there will be fire. He stressed that it is because of those things they taught to educate the people on.
Furthermore, he urged the people to be careful with fire adding that “another thing is the candle; the candle we are having today before when we were going to school here the candle we had the thread was one inch above the butt, if you put it on that table it will burn and when the thread finishes you will see the piece there but the one they are bringing this time is time trap, you will see it burning and the candle will be going and when it falls on anything it is a fire so, let us be careful with the candle. For me the best thing for us to use is the torch or the chines-light, you can leave it on the whole night all you have to do is buy a new battery the next day. For us that candle thing we need to leave it. The purpose we are here is to tell you that these things are not good you should leave it,” he said.
Meanwhile, he encouraged people to buy fire extinguishers and smoke detectors for their safety.
“So we come today, to let you know that this is why we are here to launch this day to carry on fire prevention. We are not going to stop here but all in the various communities we will give your brochure to read and those of you who can’t read give it to your children who can read and they will explain everything about fire prevention to you,” he said.
Mr. Barvoul also thanked the residents of the Transformer Community for accepting their invitation at a very short notice as well as Orange Liberia for the support and partnership that he believes will go a long way and yield good results.
