By: Linda Gbartie
MONROVIA: As part of the observance of the International Firefighters Day, the Liberia National Fire and Rescue Service (LNFS), and its partner, Orange-Liberia, have launched a fire prevention awareness campaign in Monrovia.
The fire prevention awareness campaign coincided with the 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 objectives of the fire public awareness campaign is about educating the public on how to prevent fire, before, during, and after it has occurred.
The Director General of the LNFS, Mr. G. Warsuwah Barvoul, giving the overview of the fire safety week at the launch said, the awareness is to inform the public that there are three ways to fight fire, before, during and after.
Mr. Barvoul said that the 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 fire is to prevent it, because it will save houses from getting burnt.
“If your house is gutted by 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 to know what led to the fire outbreak; if somebody got injured or died there, we will want to have that record.
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 do certain things and don’t know that it will catch fire.
“Most of us will plug the extension cord because it has six outlets, we will plug everything on it, so when current go, we just leave it as it is, and when the current comes back, all the appliances that are plug on 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 is like 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-trok on neutral and when the current comes back, they should wait for few minutes before putting the double-trok on.
“For every time the current comes on, you will see children in the communities shouting with excitement because current itself and our lives are a 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 few minutes before you put your double-trok on and start plugging your appliances one by one,” he cautioned the 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 the coal by the house and put sand over it with the mind that it will go off, but forgetting to know that as the breeze blows, 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 thought to educate the people on.
Furthermore, he urged the people to be careful with fire.
“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, candle 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 Chinese-light, you can leave it on the whole night all you got to do is to buy 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 the people to buy fire extinguishers and smoke detector for their own 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 awareness. We are not going to stop here but all in the various communities and we will give you people brochures 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 the LNFS invitation at a very short notice as well as Orange Liberia for the support and partnership that he believes will go a long way in yielding good results.
