- Says Response Now Faster
By Adeola Ogunlade
In his transformation drive towards infrastructural development and positioning Lagos State as one of the choicest city to live in, the Lagos State Governor, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu has approved the infrastructural renewal of all fire stations in the state in an unprecedented move.
The rehabilitation/renovation of all the fire stations in the state started in May 2021 through the Lagos State Infrastructure Asset Management Agency (LASIAMA) and was recommended by the Lagos State Commissioner for Special Duties, Engineer Omotayo Bamgbose-Martin. The transformation has increased employment in the service to about 633.
A documentary released yesterday indicates the fire Service centres in Lagos State have received a facelift which is unprecedented in the history of the state.
Speaking in the documentary, the General Manager of Lagos State infrastructure Asset Management Agency, (LASIAMA), Ms. Adenike Adekanbi said, “this whole thing started not because we specifically wanted to rehabilitate/renovates Fire Stations but because the Honorable Commissioner for Special Duties called me and said we need to renovate them, of course, we did an assessment of all the fire stations and we discover that all of them needed to be rehabilitated.
Adekanbi said “so the fire stations were in bad shape which was very sad, they had problems with water, power, windows, infrastructure even the environment was dirty, it was not in a good shape and was not productive.”
She posited, “the progress of the work has been very good, almost 80 to 90 percent of the work is completed. Another big thing we are doing is to make sure they all have access to water. In some of the fire stations, the boreholes weren’t working just something simple; the water storage was leaking simple things like that, so we are fixing that”.
“One of the fire stations we went actually had to go to another fire station to get water before they get to the site which made their response time very slow but now they have water and they can respond faster and better”.
Adekanbi also emphasized that Governor Sanwo-Olu was really aiming at their response time to emergencies to make things work well.
“It is important to mention that Mr. Governor was really concentrating on increasing their response time to emergencies like those rehabilitations.
“ So I think when we do all this rehabilitations, what people think is just painting, of course, we are painting and buildings are looking better but it also affect emergency response time, it affects the productivity of the staffs. We create employment, we contribute to the economy. It’s not just the paint that is given it a good face, we are actually doing beautiful work.”
Speaking on the new development in the fire service, the Director of Lagos State Fire Service, Mrs. Magret Abimbola said “it is something that hasn’t happened in the system ever since I joined the service over 20 years ago”.
“My plan and my focus are to ensure there is a fire station in all local governments so that we are able to get to the scene of a fire on time for proximity.
“The Lagos State Fire Service is the first in this nation, we don’t want to limit it there we want to be among the top fire stations and fire service in the world.”
Abimbola also appreciated Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu on this new project of rehabilitating and renovating the Lagos State Fire Stations.
“The Governor has been doing well, especially to my agency. He has been given a series of approval to make sure that fire service comes out in a brand model way.”
