Eaton West Africa, a power management company has identified solutions to incidences of electrical fire, which is one of the major issue for homes and offices.
Eaton says the need for a stringent policy on the administration of the fire code is part of solutions to incessant electrical fire in commercial and residential buildings in Nigeria.
Losses to fire incidents are generally unquantifiable and have rendered many homes, offices and other business premises useless. For this reason, the discovery of solutions to this problem will not only save household income, but also increase companies’ bottom-line.
Charles Iyo, Regional Manager, Eaton West Africa, says it’s important for families, organizations, builders and other stakeholders to begin to take more than a cursory look at fire safety measures right from buildings’ planning to the completion stage.
Faced with increasing spate of fire incidents in residential and commercial buildings across Lagos State, Adebiyi Adeyinka, director of Safety Training and Education, Lagos State Safety Commission, advises a proactive strategy to minimize risks and enhance fire safety.
“Every building must have a fire safety policy that must be available to the occupant within the premises clearly stipulating preventive measures for fire incidences”, said Adeyinka who spoke at one-day stakeholders’ engagement forum organised by Eaton Nigeria in Lagos recently.
“The role of government is to support with laws and regulations governing fire safety. However, every individual or corporation must be willing and ready to comply with the national building code”, he added.
Substandard electrical equipment are key challenges that should be tackled decisively and Peter Ewesor of Nigerian Electricity Management Service, argued that this has to be done urgently if fire outbreaks in buildings are to become a thing of the past.
“As long as there are cheap and substandard alternatives, every other solutions may fail,” he said, adding that there was need to close-mark the borders and ensure substandard goods were not allowed to filter through.
Eaton assured of its commitment to an all-round safety policy, saying that safety didn’t happen by accident. “At Eaton, we’re continually engineering and implementing safer products and processes to protect people, buildings and reputation using innovative technologies to solve some of our country’s challenges when it comes to safety in buildings”, assured Sumaya Abdool, Head Marketing, Eaton Africa, at the event in Lagos.
He also expressed the commitment to engaging and uniting with associations and regulatory bodies to promote best practice towards ensuring that fire incidences become a thing of the past.
CHUKA UROKO
