On House Fire Accidents

Hello beautiful, it is a warm day today. I started writing this piece some days ago and it took the massive fire at Singer market on February 18, 2016 for me to complete writing it. The fire was said to have been started by a ‘mei-shai’ a.k.a. tea sealer. My sincere condolences to all affected.

Now the NEPA/PHCN/KEDCO seem to have stepped down on their responsibilities in Kano. The popular ‘I better pass my neighbour’ generators have now been banned. There has been a spate of fires in Kano and now with the approaching heat more accidents at home may just happen. God forbid!

I will address it from the perspective of those I interviewed who have suffered losses from fires and then suggest prevention. We do better when we know better!
First Things First:We should all try to get fire extinguishers. They are quite affordable depending on your need. You just never know when one will come in quite handy!!!

1.       Avoid living in relatively dark houses. There are many poorly built houses which are poorly lighted even in the very bright Kano sunshine. Many who suffered losses claimed that they had to use candles and lanterns during the day and the inevitable happened. If one did not live in such houses, it may have been avoided

2.       Do not use candles. Many who suffered losses drifted off to sleep and the inevitable happened. As a rule candles are not used in my home.

3.       Avoid locking up kids in the house. Those who have to run errands and lock up kids in the house and due to little or no babysitting alternatives have suffered losing their homes and kids who were locked in during the process. Desist from this

4.       Use of gas cylinders. These days most tenants keep their gas cylinders outside their flats. This is because when the heat gets to the cylinder it heats up and explodes. Always keep the valve of your gas cylinder locked daily.

5.       Avoid use of heating agents like Nigerian boiling rings, etc. This is because it does not have a thermostat that helps regulate the heat. Use electric kettles instead.

6.       I suggest use of some household items should be discouraged. I do not use an electric gas cooker because my family escaped a fire accident using one. This is because one can forget to switch it off when electricity is cut off. I do not use matches in my home this is because kids could play with it and light up the curtains, etc. I use a lighter instead.

7.       When the gas cooker knob is turned on, light it immediately. Do not keep the gas escaping before you finally put light to it. It could end up consuming one.

8.       Always have a look round the house before retiring each night.

9.       As much as possible, cook ‘beans’ during the day. A lot of fires resulted from cooking beans at night and consequent falling asleep.

10.   If lanterns are kept on overnight, adjust it to quite low. Also make sure the area it is kept is well ventilated. Many deaths have occurred from carbon monoxide poisoning via this.

11.   Avoid topping up the petrol tank of your generator when the generator is running

12.   Avoid using ‘torch-light’ phone as lighting when topping up the petrol tank as generator. This applies whether the generator is switched off or running.

13.   Switch off all electric appliances before leaving home. Its not like one is even expecting electricity in this heat wave. So ,its better safe than sorry

You could comment and share yours or other peoples’ experiences so we can all learn.

Dr Dileem

The Likita Bokanturai

Kano Nigeria