Fire Prevention In Residential Buildings In Nigeria: Issues And Recommendations

Abstract

Fire outbreaks in public buildings have become a major concern in Nigeria in recent times. There have been several reported cases of fire incidents in public buildings where lives have been lost, and properties and goods worth millions of naira have also been destroyed. The paper discusses some fire outbreaks in some residential buildings in Nigeria with the view to examine fire preventive measures and proffer solutions on the need to improve proactive fire preventive measures through passive as well as active measures. It further notes that a consequence of the interplay of non-adherence to fire safety measures in the design of residential buildings has been a major contributing factor that encourages fire outbreaks. It also pointed out that poor management and lack of maintenance culture have vastly contributed to major fire outbreaks. The methodology involved the qualitative approach and data was collected from the following secondary sources: published journal articles, media reports, scholarly studies on fire prevention, gazetted documents on fire codes, building codes, and other fire prevention documents. The findings of the paper show that even though no one can predict fire outbreaks in residential buildings when concerted efforts are put in place at the design stage of the building and the application of specified fire-rated building materials, it would go a long way in preventing fire outbreaks. The paper further concludes by encouraging adequate maintenance of fire apparatus and accessories installed in buildings and encourages advocacy on the use of approved fire resistance materials on public buildings while ensuring synergy with relevant fire authorities on the changes made to fire-rated materials on public buildings for effective preventive measures in the event of fire outbreak.