The National Fire Authority (NFA) is concerned with the increasing number of fire incidents in rural areas around the country in the past few days.
A lean-to house was destroyed by fire in Tavarau in Ba on Wednesday night which now brings the total number of fire incidents to 58 and the third fire incident for this week.
NFA chief executive officer John O’Connor has again raised the NFA’s concern on the increasing number of fire incidents.
“Most of these structural fire incidents continue to occur in rural areas in the Western and Northern Division”.
House fire incidents attended by NFA were at Narewa Village in Rakiraki, Lokia Village in Navosa and this is the third property fire.
“The fire in Narewa Village was caused by the flying ambers which was not extinguished properly by the occupants of the house after cooking food in the kitchen and the fires at Lokia Village in Navosa and Tavarau in Ba were suspected to be caused by possible electrical related issues, however full investigations are still being conducted”.
“Investigations however have clearly revealed that if the property owners had just taken a bit of care, all these fires could have been easily avoided.
“We would like to advice the home owners to ensure that they do regular fire safety checks such as:
● Routinely conduct basic visual checks of the electrical wiring and the electrical appliances and call a registered contractor or electrician if you are concerned on some aspects of your electrical installations.
●Switch off electrical appliances after use or when leaving the home.
●Ensure that all cooking appliances are turned off completely before leaving the kitchen. For cooking of food in an open fire place, cooks are advised to ensure that the firewood embers are completely extinguished before leaving the cooking area.
● Always check that all fire ignition sources in the house like stoves, lamps, mosquito coils, prayer diyas, candles are put out or turned off completely before going to bed or leaving the house.
● Keep matches/lighters out of children’s reach. Parents and guardians are advice to inform their children that they should not play with matches as it can lead to unnecessary burning or burning of homes.
Mr O’Connor added while the NFA is utilizing all its resources to educate members of the community on fire safety prevention, however the Authority cannot do this alone and needs the support of everyone to keep their homes fire safe in order to eliminate the chances of fire destroying our homes and our community.
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