Council wants new name for Fire Service.

The National Council on Fire has called for the adoption of a new name that would unify fire services in the country.

The council suggested that the Fire Service should be called the Nigerian Fire and Rescue Service to centralise fire service delivery in the country.

Deputy Public Relations Officer of the Federal Fire Service, Elechi Collins on Tuesday in Abuja said the call was made at the end of the Second National Council on Fire Conference, held in Kano at the weekend.

Collins said government and the National Assembly should unify the fire services in Nigeria to be known and called Nigerian Fire and Rescue Service.

According to him, all responders to emergencies in Nigeria are centralised except the fire service, which is decentralised, making the issue of co-ordination cumbersome and problematic for the management of national emergency.

He said the council also concluded that government at all levels should enforce the installation of fire protection equipment in all buildings, including the installation of sprinkler system in all public buildings.

Collins said the 1963 Act of the Fire Service was inadequate to meet the development challenges, requesting the Federal Executive Council and the National Assembly to urgency enact an Act for the Nigerian Fire and Rescue Service.

He said for the council to achieve its policy on public information, education and communication, sufficient funding should be provided by all levels of government.

All levels of government and supervising authorities should provide resources that will enable their respective fire services to carry out exercises and drills to test the workability of their Standard Operating Procedures.

He also called on State Government to adopt the National Fire Code when approved by the Federal Executive Council.

According to him, the council has adopted the last week in October every year as the National Fire Safety Week and Jan. 9 as National Fire Safety Day.

He said The council also called on private and corporate organisations to partner with various fire services in the country to sponsor fire safety enlightenment campaigns and other relevant programmes.