Gombe: ‘Fire Killed 16, N170m Property Destroyed’

Statistics indicate that Various fire outbreaks in the past 11 months in Gombe State have led to the death of 16 persons and destroyed property worth over N170 million, according to records obtained from the Operations Office of the state Fire Service.

The breakdown of lives lost and property destroyed indicate that three lives were lost in January, one in February, five in June, three in July and four in October while NI8 million worth of property was lost in January, N5 million in February, N12 million in March, N19 million in April, N2.7 million in May, N3.2 million in June, N1.5 million in July and August, N19 m in September, N74 million in October and N14.8 million in November.

Operations officer of the Gombe State Fire Service, Mr. Solomon Burga, said leaving fire on, and not switching off electrical appliances like water heaters after use were responsible for most of the incidents.

According to him, “in this cold period, people use fire a lot, but they seem to forget that it is dry and windy. Domestic fires, when not extinguished properly could cause a fire outbreak. Hunters also make fires that they forget to extinguish after use and they are subsequently carried further by wind. And in the urban areas, most people don’t remember to switch off electrical appliances after using them”.

Meanwhile, the 2009 Nigeria Demographic Health Survey indicates that over 100 pregnant women die during child birth in Nigeria,  National President of Nigerian Association of Women Journalists (NAWOJ), Hajiya Fatima Abdulkareem, has said.
 Abdulkareem stated this  at a one-day sensitisation workshop on the role of the media in child and maternal mortality reduction in Gombe State at the North-east meeting of the association held in Gombe.

She added that in every 10 minutes, a woman dies while in every one hour, six women die during child birth in the country, hence the decision of the association to embark on creating awareness through the media.

Gombe Chapter Chairman of the association, Mrs. Ruth Absalom, commended the Society For Family Health for its timely intervention.