Towards mitigating a fire disaster in Bauchi State, the State Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management has mapped out Stakeholders and engaged with them on proffering solutions to fire and other outbreak disasters.
The stakeholders were drawn from both the federal and state fire services, the state line ministries, department and agencies, security agencies, professional bodies, CSOs, Media, market and transport associations.
In an opening remarks at the maiden meeting of the stakeholders, Bauchi State Commissioner of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management Hajiya Hajara Yakubu Wanka said that the State Government is committed to mitigating recurring fire disasters and hence the need for identifying key stakeholders that could proffer solutions in that regard.
Wanka said that the main objective of the meeting was to explore innovative approach to awareness creation on fire disasters, mitigation and response.
She stressed that, "though we cannot completely stop fire disasters from happening, but we help in reducing occurrences to bearest minimum through massive awareness campaigns. Such awareness campaigns will assist in reorienting members of the public on basic precautionary measures and how they can save their lives if such disasters occur".
Commissioner Wanka implored the stakeholders to open in their suggestions because according to her, "we are here to put heads together and come up with workable and realistic ways of managing fire disasters in Bauchi State".
She assured the stakeholders that His Excellency, Governor Bala Mohammed is keen on seeing what the Stakeholders will offer as solutions to fire disasters.
While appreciating the effort of the Humanitarian Ministry for convening the stakeholder engagement activity, the State Commissioner of Health Dr. Sani Muhammad Dambam said that fire disasters most times comes with health concerns because of what victims go through during such disasters.
Dambam gave an insight into how the smoke in such disasters sometimes leads to loss of lives and advised victims to always lay low and crawl out to safety as according to him, "smoke tends to bellow up and so, when victims walk straight, there is the tendency of massive in healing of smoke".
He then pledged the commitment of his ministry in supporting the initiative by the Humanitarian Ministry aimed at reducing fire disasters in the State.
There were advises from the stakeholders that mostly focused on weak awareness for the public, inadequate fire fighting trucks, accessibility of disaster areas, use of substandard electrical wirings, absence of simple emergency numbers and some other challenges.
At the end of the meeting two subcommittees that include: resource mobilization and advocacy/awareness were formed with a mandate to develop a workable plan of action towards mitigating fire disasters in Bauchi State.
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