The Lagos State Fire and Rescue Service has released data on emergency calls it received in 2022.
The Emergency Report shows the agency was called 1,509 times, out of which 1,130 were fire calls, 93 were rescue calls, one was an explosion call, eight were for building collapses and 34 were for what it tagged “salvaged” calls.
Two hundred and forty-three of the calls, accounting for 16 percent of the total calls received in the year under review, were false.
More than eighty percent of the false calls (195) were made in the last two months of 2022.
The report shows that fire incidences also increased exponentially in the final two months of the year.
Seven hundred and eighty-one fires were reported from January to October, averaging 78.1 per month, but there were 349 fire calls in November and December alone.
The Director of the Lagos State Fire and Rescue Service, Adeseye Margaret, says investigations revealed carelessness and negligence as the major causes of the unfortunate incidents.
The report shows that a total of 127 victims were rescued alive, and 70 others were suspected dead; N90 billion worth of properties were saved while other properties with a combined valuation of N15 billion were lost.
The report was released at a meeting on Thursday where Adeseye urged Lagosians to desist from putting unnecessary pressure on fire operators.
She assured the public that the fire and rescue service has the capacity to contain fires in Lagos State.
