Festival of fire: Rivers not too prepared for fire disasters

Disaster first struck in March when a tanker, fully-loaded with petroleum products rammed into a residential area in Igwuruta, Ikwerre Local Government Area of the state, claiming lives of seven members of the community. About 25 houses were burnt and many residents rendered homeless. Youths in the area, who were angered by the late arrival […]

Disaster first struck in March when a tanker, fully-loaded with petroleum products rammed into a residential area in Igwuruta, Ikwerre Local Government Area of the state, claiming lives of seven members of the community. About 25 houses were burnt and many residents rendered homeless.

Youths in the area, who were angered by the late arrival of men of the Rivers State Fire Service, attacked six fire fighters and vandalized two of their vehicles before the deployment of a combined team of police and military men to the scene.

The Director-General of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Alhaji Mohammed Sani Sidi, while donating relief materials to victims of fire incident, repeatedly called on the oil and gas producing State to fortify its disaster management capacity, especially in the area of fire disaster.

Alhaji Sani Sidi advised Governor Rotimi Amaechi to establish a functional State Emergency Agency, including Fire Fighters in all the 23 Local Government Areas.

Months after the appeal by the NEMA boss, another petrol tanker-related fire disaster occurred in Okogbe community in which no fewer than 191 persons, who apparently did not get the enlightenment advocated by NEMA,  were consumed while struggling to scoop easy  fuel with buckets and jerricans at the scene.

The fire incident generated disagreement between the State government, the ruling party, the opposition and stakeholders on the cause of the high number of deaths.

Stakeholders and the state government blamed poverty and lack of enlightenment for the death of innocent people in the petrol tanker fire.

The Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), mandated to improve the social and environmental conditions of the people in the South-South region, blamed the community members, who were pushed by greed to scoop fuel and acting   irresponsibly.

The Managing Director of NDDC, Dr Christian Oboh, while directing the immediate release of funds to procure drugs for the victims, said, “I think we need to be responsible, no matter the situation.”

Mr Jerry Needam, the spokesman of the Rivers State chapter of the Action Congress of Nigeria blamed the Amaechi administration for not doing enough in enlightening the people and lifting them out of poverty despite the huge amount federal cash allocation accruable to the State.

He said, “The governor should also be held responsible for the lack of enlightenment, which according to him also, resulted in the ugly incident.

“As a State that tops the chart in revenue allocation accruable from oil, Governor Amaechi should be held responsible for the poverty that stared of the people in the face compelling them to want to scoop petroleum from a tanker on fire whose consequence was the death of about 200 persons.”

Barely a week before Rivers could recover from Okogbe disaster, double tragedy again stuck Port Harcourt, the State capital, when an unknown vessel believed to be carrying about 30 persons was gutted by fire at Abuloma Jetty.

The Abuloma Jetty fire was burning at same time five petrol tankers set ablaze by men of the Joint Military Task Force (JTF) were dangerously burning close to residend areas of Eneka and two media organizations were also gutted by fire.

As fire fighters rushed to help put out the fires from the petrol tankers, the burning fire in Abuloma vessels was almost consuming the  jetty and its environs, forcing  NEMA officials to go on air, appealing for fire fighters to rush to the Jetty before another major  disaster errupted again.

When fire fighters from the Rivers State Fire Service and one other multinational company   finally got to the scene, they couldn’t put off the fire but had to leave the scene when the fire was still gathering momentum. Their excuse was that they had ran out of water. The vessel kept burning for two days.

This angered youths in the community as many lamented that the government of an oil producing state, with presence of several multinational companies, should be up to task of tackling disasters such as fire outbreak.

The Chief Marine Environment Management Officer of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Maduekwe H, while lamenting what he described   as a slow  response to fire disaster in the State, urged the State  government to decentralize  the State Fire Services and to have them  stationed in all the local government  headquarters across the  State.

The Rivers State Government has, however, said it is planning to build more fire fighting stations across the State as well as complete existing ones.

The State Commissioner for Special Duties, Emeka Wogu, however, told newsmen after the recent fire incident that the State government is considering building the fire fighting stations in Ogoni, Ikwerre and Etche.

“The Ministry has already engaged in the construction of four more stations, apart from the one at Borokiri, that one is almost completed. The one at Rumoudomaya is nearly completed.

“The place we have problems is Ahoada and Degema. When I assumed duty as the commissioner, I summoned the contractor and I was told that he did not complete it because the terrain was so bad that it consumed good percentage of their money.

The wife of the President, Dame Patience Jonathan, who described the recent tanker fire at Okogbe Community in Ahoada as worst disaster in the region, also the called on stakeholders to carry out enough enlightenment campaign on the dangers of meddling with oil pipelines.

She said: “For the people of the South-South this is a very sad news, but we believe with this incident we have learnt a lesson, because we cannot be producing the oil and at the same time be losing our lives through oil production.” Dame Jonathan appealed to the Governors in the region and the authorities of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to carry out more enlightenment campaigns over the dangers of meddling with petroleum products. She recalled that, “this is not first time the people of South-South have experienced such sad incident. It has been recurring, so it is high time we did more to enlighten the people on the dangers of petroleum products.” As Rivers people continue to wait for the enlightenment campaign to be taken to rural communities, as suggested by NEMA, the First Lady, other stakeholders and women in the state have resorted to prayers to avert further calamities.