The Fire Service unit of Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Lagos Ports Complex (LPC), Apapa yesterday urged staff, visitors and contractors at the port to promptly raise alarm whenever they notice fire outbreak.
Assistant Chief Fire Officer of the port, Adebayo Afolabi, gave the advice yesterday after a fire drill involving LPC workers including the Port Manager, Mallam Nasir Anas Mohammed.
Afolabi said the fire drill was carried out to imbibe alertness in the minds of the people at the complex.
“What we have done is to enable us know the escape route should there be fire incident, for them to know what to do during the time of emergency.
“When there is fire alert, people should be proactive because it is smoke that kill and not the fire itself. When one is overpowered by smoke, that is the end. That is why we advice people to leave the building immediately,” he said.
The fire service boss however said that the department didn’t inform the workers in the complex of the drill so as to test their alertness to danger signals.
“It is not their job and I believe that in the next one or two days, they will forget the drill and when next there is alarm they will respond with alertness,” he told SHIPS & PORTS DAILY shortly after the exercise.
Also speaking to SHIPS AND PORTS DAILY, the Port Manager, Mallam Nasir Anas Mohammed said that the fire drill was part of the routine exercise that the complex does to keep employees abreast of eventualities.
“We never know when the unexpected will arise so people must always be at alert, they must not be caught off guard because fire doesn’t give notice whenever it will occur. The drill is to let people know where to go when there is fire incident in the complex and what to do,” Mohammed stated.
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