National Fire Authority (NFA) attended to three different major emergencies yesterday.
Yesterday afternoon, NFA firefighters at the Nadi Fire Station attended to six grass fire incidents and one structural fire incident in Nadi which resulted in a double storey house in Nadi being destroyed in a fire.
NFA Nadi firefighters battled for several hours yesterday to extinguish six grass fire incidents in and around the Nadi areas. At 1949hrs, Nadi firefighters responded to a grass fire call at Sanasana(Nasoso) in Nadi and were extinguishing the grass fire when the Nadi Fire Station received a property fire call at Nakurakura, Nadi at 2014hrs.
NFA firefighters from the Nadi and Denarau Fire Station responded to the property fire call and upon arrival at 2030hrs at Nakurakurua, firefighters saw the double storey house fully engulfed in flames.
The Nadi Fire Team quickly established deliveries of water from its tank supply and from the fire hydrant to extinguish the fire.
The concrete, timber and corrugated iron structured house was destroyed in the fire along with its contents. No one was injured in this fire incident. Due to the fire load (contents of the building), the fire had spread very quickly within the property and the firefighters had to battle to contain and control the fire and prevent it from spreading to nearby buildings.
Investigations have commenced this morning to determine the cause of the fire.
In another separate fire incident in Suva yesterday evening, NFA Suva Fire Team responded to the bus fire incident at 1801hrs at the Fiji National University Samabula Campus bus stop.
NFA Suva received the fire emergency call at 1801hrs and immediately responded to the fire call. Upon arrival at 1805hrs, the firefighters saw smoke coming out of the bus but the fire was already put out when the team arrived as the driver of the bus had used the fire extinguisher to extinguish the fire. The bus had passengers on board when it caught fire. The passengers were able to get out of the bus safely.
NFA CEO John O’Connor said these incidents reflects how serious and dangerous a fire incident can be either it be a property or a vehicle fire.
“People’s lives and properties are put at risk in case of a fire.
Mr O’Connor is again reminding members of the community to take fire safety seriously.
“The house fire incident at Nadi last night is a another remainder to the members of the community that a fire can happen to anyone and that we must change our attitude towards fire safety and regard fire safety as very important and take the necessary actions to mitigate or eliminate potential sources of fires at home.
Mr O’Connor also highlighted NFA’s concern on the increasing number of rubbish, bush and grass fire incidents and yesterday’s six grass fire calls attended to by Nadi Fire Station is another stark remainder of the seriousness of these bush, grass and rubbish fire calls which compromises NFA’s firefighting operation when there is a structural fire call.
“We are more concerned since all these bush and rubbish fires are intentionally started by some members of the community who do not think about the consequences of their actions which concerns the NFA and also affects its services in the event of a structural fire incident,” Mr O’Connor said.
“A thorough investigation has started into this grass fire incident which happened yesterday and NFA will work with the Police to ensure that people who are doing this are taken to task.
“We hope that the members of the community take heed of our advice to avoid unnecessary fire incidents from damaging or destroying their properties”, Mr O’Connor said.
Mr O’Connor is also urging the bus drivers to again ensure they follow the fire safety procedures and it is their duty of care to ensure they check their buses before their daily routine to ensure their buses are fit to travel on the road.
In a separate incident, NFA responded to a Road Accident Rescue this morning. Suva Fire Station received the call at 0545hrs that a taxi and a private car had collided head on in front of the Pleas Beverage in Walu Bay. When the team arrived at the accident scene, the driver of the taxi was still trapped in the taxi. Firefighters utilizing heavy duty road accident equipments were able to safely remove the taxi driver from the taxi and he was immediately transported to the CWM Hospital.
NFA