It was around 1:30 a.m. on a humid October night in 2020 when Oluwatoyin Abimbola received a call she won’t forget soon: her trading store in the busy Oba’nla neighbourhood of Akure was melting away in a raging inferno. 

“Before I could rush down, my goods have been burnt into ashes,” she told Peoples Gazette in a recent interview. “I cried my eyes.”

By the time firefighters arrived, her goods, multimillion-naira worth, had been reduced to rubble, alongside items in several other stores and residential buildings nearby. 

The fire department in Akure, she said, came late. “And when they even arrived, their vehicle couldn’t work as expected.”

Just before the outbreak, Mrs Abimbola and the owners of adjoining businesses had started stocking up for the Christmas holiday sale, a context she said aggravated the damages and complicated the chances of recovery for those affected. 

The destruction would have been mitigated had the state firefighters arrived early enough or with functioning equipment. 

Little, however, did they know about the neglect that has long beset the department. From suffocating fire trucks to poor personnel welfare, the public safety mission of the service has deteriorated through successive administrations in Ondo.

Contributory negligence 

The Ondo State Fire Service was established in 1976 following the creation of the state from the defunct Western Region. Its core responsibilities are essentially the same as similar fire safety outfits worldwide.

Whereas the agency is situated in the affluent Alagbaka neighbourhood — where the governor, top cabinet officials and members of the state’s elite call home — it has failed to receive operational and infrastructure support from the Ministry of Infrastructure, Lands and Housing that supervises its activities.  

For years, protests have dogged the department as workers pushed for better working tools and allowances. In 2015, under Governor Olusegun Mimiko, fire officials embarked on a protest to show their anger and displeasure at what they described as the continued lackadaisical attitude of that administration to their plight.

They were bitter that they could no longer respond to distress calls from residents needing emergency service.

The protests relaxed after state lawmakers intervened and a truce was reached that promised better living and working conditions for the firefighters. 

Eight years on, however, little has been done to ameliorate the suffering and situation of the workers at the state fire brigade. And the conditions have worsened based on a recent visit by The Gazette.

The Alagbaka headquarters has been defaced starting from the entrance with a rotten iron gate that unmistakably betrayed the level of neglect the facility has endured. 

Dank offices

A plaque at the entrance still announces the building was commissioned by Adekunle Ajasin, the state’s first civilian governor, on March 28, 1980. 

The edifice, a storey building with old paint already pilling with the ceilings carving in, has long been due for renovation and needed an overhauling.  Although situated in a clean environment, some of the properties and equipment to combat fire incidence in the city have been left to rotten away.  

Findings by The Gazette during the visit revealed that the last time a working fire truck was purchased for the department was during the administration of Olabode George, who led a military junta that ruled the state between 1988 and 1990.  

Even when the state donated Toyota Hilux vans to federal agencies that included the correctional service, civil defence, customs, police, military and even the immigration, the fire service was controversially left out without explanation.  

“Just imagine the trucks, you would think all is working. No, they are grounded as seen. The only one working (point at one of the trucks) is this one you see here. 

“Even its work is not perfect as wanted. It still gives us mechanical problems. We have to keep up with its services regularly and you can imagine what we have to face to keep this only surviving one,” an official told The Gazette under anonymity for fear of retribution. 

Further findings also revealed that some of the facilities, from electronics like televisions to furniture like tables and shelves, that could be seen at the office were installed several years ago and no longer fit for modern purposes. 

“Mr Omotoyinbo contributed a lot to the growth of the fire service. There were times he would use his money to purchase things that were needed by the organisation” to perform basic functions, said one official about a long-retired boss at the department. 

Pilling on

Lives, goods and invaluable assets have been lost to frequent fire disasters across Ondo, leaving trails of devastation across the state.  

Victims are still reeling from the fire outbreak at the office of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Akure barely weeks before the October 10, 2020, governorship election. A container housing over 5,000 card reader machines meant for the election was burnt into ashes. 

Also, in the same year, more than 20 shops were razed by fire at Ijomu and Oba’nla street in Akure South Local Council Area of the state, leaving a sour taste in the mouth of many shop owners whose goods were destroyed beyond recognition. 

The electoral office was not the only public institution that sustained huge losses from inadequate fire containment measures in the state. In 2021, an expansive facility housing the marketing department of Ondo State Radiovision Corporation, French Language Centre and the state scholarship board was consumed by fire. 

Witnesses said distress calls were placed to the fire department but no intervention came until all buildings were scorched with their expensive equipment.

Official estimates said residents lost N164.2 million to fire outbreaks across Ondo between January and August 2022. 

Conversely, fire officials saved N3.139 billion in some of the 46 cases of fire incidents that were recorded during the period under review — despite obsolete tools.

The Ondo government has not been keeping data of fire casualties in the state, but a health official said more than 400 deaths have been recorded in the five years between 2017 and 2022.

 In 2018, a fire consumed a building in Edo Lodge neighbourhood of Akure, killing two children of the same mother. The fire service said there was no water to respond to the emergency, which gripped the capacity city for several months. 

Evenly spread

The Gazette gathered that the fire brigade has fire stations in major towns across the state, all of which are equally racked by years of neglect. Outside the headquarters in Akure, the state has fire stations in Oka, Ikare, Owo, Ore, Okitipupa and Ondo town. 

Like Akure, the satellite stations are not operating as staff largely stay away from duty because they could not get the state’s attention to supply firefighting equipment.   

The only fire truck in Ikare and Oka – which serves the Akoko axis of the state — is currently comatose, our findings showed. Similarly, the machine in Ondo now has not seen any serious repairs in years, leaving officials to abandon it.

“On several occasions, we have asked for a new truck here to serve us because Ondo is a big city. The one we have here is just being managed,” an official said, lamenting that some senior officials have had to carry out repair works from their pockets in the past.

Like Akure, residents of other fire precincts would be left to fate in case of a fire outbreak, as there would be no help from the firefighters due to obsolete equipment and inadequate manpower.

Maintenance tools including wrenches, chain saws, pick-head axes, pike poles, halligan bars, flashlights, spanner wrenches, cutter edges, circulars, hydraulic rescue tools, cutters and spreaders, among others, are acutely in short supply.

Also, personal protective equipment designed to withstand high temperatures, alongside oxygen equipment, personal alert safety system, bunker gears and carbon flash hoods at the facility, are becoming increasingly obsolete. 

Officials said some safety boots were recently delivered, but those are insufficient to distribute among workers. The fire service has just two borehole facilities, which officials said are too old to make any difference in an emergency.

Officials said past administrations awarded contracts to supply new equipment, but how the funds were spent remained shrouded in mystery.

 Wrapping trust

The state firefighters have always made several excuses anytime there is a fire incident that needed to be attended to during emergency cases.

In the line of duty, many of the officers, although they frequently endure public assault over late arrival to scenes of fire outbreaks, push complaints that they lack functional trucks to fight infernos.

Consistently, residents, unaware of the situation’s acuteness, would still call the fire service during an emergency, often to either a dead or unanswered line.

A businessman in Akure, Olumide Olusegun, said he was once disappointed by the firefighters when his former shop in the Oluwatuyi area was gutted by fire. 

“At times,” if they ever answer a call, “the officers would complain of lack of fuel or engine faults for the fire trucks at the facility,” he said, recalling how he lost millions of naira after firefighters failed to intervene. Others who drove to the fire department to physically knock on gates were rebuffed. 

Further findings at the fire service station in the Akure headquarters office revealed that one of the only surviving trucks being used by firefighters was donated by the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC). But even that engine has since packed up, officials said. 

The only functional fire truck stationed at the parking lot of the facility could break down anytime and develop a mechanical fault with its present condition and work duty as the fire truck was meant to serve four local government areas of Akure South, Akure North, Ifedore and Idanre.

One of the trucks, a Mercedes Benz procured 26 years ago, was originally designed to carry 500 litres of water. It was abandoned yesterday ago after failing repeatedly to expel water during fire incidents. 

Poor remuneration, welfare

Besides firefighting, fire officials are regularly relied on during flooding to help victims evacuate. They also provide technical suggestions on the construction of petrol stations, as well as issue general safety certifications.  

Documents seen by The Gazette showed the fire stations in Oka, Ikare, Owo, Ore, Ondo, Okitipupa and Akure all have a combined strength of about 70 personnel, including ad-hoc workers. Many of these staff run shifts.

Many of the personnel are untrained and often unprepared to run a fire engine during an emergency, our findings showed. 

It was further gathered that the last public recruitment done at the state fire service at the time of our findings was carried out in 2011, and those employed then are currently on grade-level eight at the fire station, out of which 11 retired on September 28, 2022. 

Since they retired, the government has not employed more hands to keep the fire station running effectively. 

Some staff members, particularly those who are outstation and who preferred not to be mentioned, told The Gazette that they were not satisfied with the present condition being subjected to in the service by the government. 

Their hazard allowance, a meagre 150 percent of annual basic pay, has not been settled for several years, the workers said, despite how 

“The most pathetic of this is that our hazard allowance of N1,500 has not been paid,” an official said. “We even thank God that it was reviewed about four years ago from N15 per month or 50 kobo per day.”  

However, findings revealed that in a standard fire department in the country, the staff would have been earning N15,000 or more as hazard allowances due to the perils they encounter regularly.

“At times, we used to have like 10 drums of diesel here, which we would take to Ondo, Okitipupa and other areas, but now they would just bring N5,000 for diesel which can only buy 31 litres to a tank of almost 200 litres considering that cost of gas has astronomically gone up, and we are very sure, the governor is releasing funds to this department but seems they are embezzling it,” a firefighter at the department said.

Gulped earmarks  

A check on the 2022 budget showed that N25, 584, 495, 545.55 was allocated for the ministry supervising the fire service in the current year under review. 

According to the budget document released by the state’s budget office, N406, 215,556.55 was meant for recurrent, while a total of N25,142,279,989.00 was for capital expenditures in the state sectoral allocation of funds for MDAs. 

In the same budget, only 4,940,000.00 was meant for the fire service. An official told The Gazette the amount was an error but did not specify how much was ultimately budgeted for the fire department.

Also, funding and administrative tasks for the fire service, including personnel remuneration and promotion, are handled directly through the supervising ministry. 

Training shelved

The staff of the state fire service have long in years undergone training against the modern standard of firefighting rules. Although The Gazette could not confirm the exact year or the last time the firefighters in the state underwent training, with personnel saying they lacked modern training to continue coping with the job.

“I can’t even recall the last time we were trained or went for training in the organisation. It is more reason why we are still using old equipment to address fire challenges when we have the opportunity to do so,” an official said.

It was also gathered the state government recently created the Office of the Director of Fire Service at the premises of the Ministry of Infrastructure, Lands and Housing as all attempts to create the office right inside the Akure headquarters of the fire service were rebuked by some staff. 

“For their selfish interest, they created the office of the Director of the fire service and created a space for him inside the Ministry. This is someone who has never seen smoke, let alone fight a fire. We can’t do anything now without his knowledge. And he is a novice in the profession. 

“He was forcefully imposed on us. Nobody trains him in firefighting. He is the one serving as our boss at the Ministry,” another source said, stressing that his lack of skills on the job was also the reason why the state fire service had remained stagnant. 

Federal alternatives 

As the state government dithers on its responsibility to residents’ safety, the Federal Fire Service has been fighting fire incidents since 2019 when a new office opened along Igbatoro Road in Akure. 

During a visit, The Gazette found that the Federal Fire Service has functional standby trucks to combat fire outbreaks.

At the premises were two vehicles — a 13,000-litre capacity water tanker and a 6000-litre tanker with 500-litre foam. One of the water trucks, the FFS183, has modern firefighting capabilities.

Also, it was gathered that the Federal Fire Service has a staff strength of 62, including engine operators, who operate in various departments of the organisation. 

Outside Akure, the department has intervened in emergencies in Akoko, Ore, and Idanre, among others.

The Gazette learnt that the Federal Fire Service also has its officers stationed outside the state branch in Akure, although their job is mainly to educate the public on how to avoid fire outbreaks.

Two senior federal fire officials who spoke to The Gazette, Messrs Abiodun Ekeolu and Obagunoa Olu, said they have been assisting the state fire service to respond to fire incidents. 

“We have been seeking collaboration with them (state fire service), but, unfortunately, there is nothing much to collaborate on their side due to shortage of equipment and their attitude to work.

“Like us here, we have the necessary equipment to fight fires, although we still beg for more from the government. We have functional trucks that we service regularly and can go out to fight a fire as often as possible,” Mr Ekeolu said.

Mr Olu said federal workers have better working conditions, although most of them are always on duty due to the crucial nature of their assignment.

“But we run three washes (shifts) and most of our staff are on the operation unit while all our things are always ready and on standby, as we could get distress calls anytime,” Mr Olu added. 

Despite suitable working conditions, it was gathered that the federal fire service is also faced with challenges of finance, upgrading its offices, utility vehicles that could assist in carrying firefighting equipment to the venue of fire incidence and fueling of the trucks, among others. 

“You know there is no way we can work without the support of the state government too. So, we are still facing the challenge of fueling our trucks. 

“We have been appealing to the government to assist us, even if they cannot give us the cash but assist us with fuel stations where we could easily get diesel into our trucks. We have been able to maintain these trucks because our engineer comes from Abuja anytime they are due for services. 

“We need hydrates and water. Although, special thanks to the state fire service, we sometimes get water from their boreholes. Give to them, they have the water, and it is part of the collaboration we sought,” Mr Ekeolu added. 

Parliamentary intervention

The Ondo State House of Assembly has received complaints and tried to manage the situation with the state fire service for years, but lawmakers said the efforts have failed to materialise significantly.

Under Mr Mimiko, lawmakers raised concern about the sorry state of the fire service with a call on the government to urgently revamp the department. 

Then-Speaker Samuel Ajayi Adesina allowed a motion on the floor, calling the attention of the government to the plights of the firefighters. 

Dare Emiola, a former lawmaker, repeatedly pushed a bill to transform the fire department into an independent agency.  

However, documents seen by our reporter showed that Mr Mimiko met only 40 firefighters upon assuming office in 2009. The state’s population is nearly four million. Additional 30 firefighters were recruited. 

In 2020, lawmakers again decried the inadequacy of the state fire service to respond to distress calls, especially during fire incidents.

One of the lawmakers, Toluwani Borokini, who represents Akure South Constituency 1, raised a motion as a matter of urgent public importance at the assembly concerning the moribund fire service and the need for the government to address it.

Immediately, incumbent Speaker Bamidele Oloyelogun set up a three-member ad-hoc committee headed by Jamiu Maito to visit the state fire service and look into its deficiencies.

The Gazette learnt that Messrs Borokini and Abayomi Akinruntan are members of the committee. 

In interviews, Mr Borokini said the parliamentarians had visited the state fire service to understand the steepness and urgency of the crisis. 

“We discovered that the maintenance culture among the staff is poor. They have equipment that is poorly maintained, and it is what you would see in parastatals that are not owned by individuals because since it is government-owned, they don’t care,” Mr Borokini said. “For instance, you would see equipment that is down with little fault but later rise into a greater fault since they are not maintained. You see vehicles and trucks become moribund, unusable and unserviceable. Over time, it is a function of maintenance culture.”  

The lawmaker added: “They also complained of personnel, and it is also a function of resources to maintain what they have on the ground which is not readily available to them.”

Mr Borokin said making the fire service an independent entity, as suggested by the previous parliament, would be a practical solution. 

“The state fire service should be an independent agency on its own. It should be directly under the governor and be monitored by the governor’s office,” he said. 

“Just like the state-owned media organisations (Ondo State Radio-Vision Corporation, OSRC) that are not under the Ministry of Information and other similar agencies which ought to be under particular ministries but are independent. The reason is that the bureaucracy that runs them would not be so much that they won’t be able to function as expected,” the lawmaker further told The Gazette. 

Other lawmakers also complained that the situation at the state fire service was becoming embarrassing, demanding an urgent resolution to prevent future disasters. 

Pushing back

The Gazette made several efforts to speak with Busayo Araroba, who was identified as the Chief Fire Officer at the state fire service, but his official lines were not connecting when filing his report. 

A source had told our reporter that Mr Araroba seems to be on the side of the government and might not be willing to talk about the challenges bedevilling the firefighters. 

“He (Araroba) would not talk to you. Although, he is facing the same challenge with us because of his position, he would not talk to you, and he has started romancing those in the government, too,” an official said. 

But the director of the fire service at the state ministry, Ayodele Ashamo, said the government was aware of the various challenges facing the state fire service. 

Mr Ashamo said Mr Akeredolu has been trying to address some of the challenges, especially personnel and equipment shortages. 

“The government is looking to the present challenges facing the organisation,” Mr Ashamo told The Gazette.  

But when pressed further and confronted by facts by The Gazette that the state firefighters still lack the necessary equipment to perform their duties, Mr Ashamo threatened to hang up the phone conversation. 

“But, I just told you that we don’t have challenges like you are mentioning,” he said. “These are not discussions that we could have on the phone.”