Tower Insurance has partnered with the National Fire Authority to promote fire safety awareness.

Tower Insurance (Fiji) Limited have provided $30,000 to the NFA for their radio fire safety awareness campaign.

NFA chairman, Commander Francis Kean, thanked the Tower Insurance for their sponsorship.

Mr Kean said: “The increase in number of fire is alarming.

“I would like to take this opportunity to thank Tower Insurance for coming on board to partner with NFA.

“In taking about to various the citizens in country, communities on being fire conscious and also to practise and exercise fire safety precautions in homes, businesses, villages or wherever we reside.”

NFA have recorded 19 property fires so far of which 17 were home fires and two commercial fires.

Mr Kean confirmed that the majority of these fire causes were electrical related faults and children playing with matches.

The NFA is also concerned with the increase in property fires in the last three years with 147 property fires in 2016, 127 fires in 2015 and 143 property fires in 2014.

“I believe for the country as a whole we need to continue to stress the importance of taking fire safety precaution measures particularly to homes and communities,” he said.

Mr Kean has advised the public to take heed of safety measures to avoid fire in their homes.

Tower Insurance (Fiji) Limited general manager Sarah-Jane Wild said: “Tower Insurance is pleased to partnering with NFA.

“The impact of fire is devastating and we can notice in inflective fires occurring recently.

“It’s such a shame to see losses of this nature when a lot of that are preventable,” she said.

Ms Wild hopes that awareness and education on fire safety will reduce the number of fire occurring.

NFA’s message to public

Mr Kean said: “The advice to citizens at large is that there are a lot electrical equipment in the hardware shops and electrical shops.

“Do not look at the price, look at the quality of this equipment, it will save your home and lives and that is a priority for us.

“We urge all parents to store all flammable materials in a safe place that will not only protect your property, but your lives as well,” he said.

Prank calls

Mr Kean also highlighted that the NFA still received prank calls.

He said it also came at a cost and he urged members of the public to please take heed of this and not to partake in some of those prank calls.

Fire trucks run out of water

Some people have complained that when there is a fire, NFA trucks would come to the scene to put out the fire, but they ran out of water.

Mr Kean said their intent was to reach the scene of the fire as soon as possible and extinguish it and in some cases to stop the fire spreading.

“Our fire trucks can carry only a certain amount of water and that’s why there are fire hydrants at various places to assist NFA for water supply,” he said.

Edited by Jonathan Bryce

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