Theirs is a peculiar job; one which is driven by the passion to rescue others in distress. While the rest of humanity glee at the mention of disaster, PRECIOUS IGBONWELUNDU reports that these individuals known as emergency workers stake their lives, energy and sometimes personal resources for the safety of others irrespective of time or day.
Bosun Olukolade, an official of the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA) had not been to his home since Sunday, March 15, after the multiple explosions that shook several parts of the state.
His new abode has been operational vehicles deployed to the scene of the blasts, while food rations and other necessities are supplied to him and his team daily to ensure they work non-stop in order to prevent secondary disaster in the neighbourhood.
Like Olukolade, the story is the same for several men and women working for agencies such as the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Fire Services, Red Cross, Police, the military, Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), Lagos Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) and Lagos Neighbourhood Safety Corps (LNSC).
These officials stake their all, shun family love and comforts for the good of humanity but are most often rewarded with insults, pelting of stones/bottles and in some instances, physical assaults by residents of areas where there is an emergency.
With a population of approximately 21 million people scattered across coastal, uphill and hinterland, both natural and man-made emergency situations are bound to happen regularly.
Hardly a day goes by without these officials racing to contain accidents- road, water or air; flooding, erosion, fire outbreaks; buildings collapse and, in some instances, outbreaks of certain diseases.
Instances abound where some of these officials have sustained injuries in the line of duty but still, they remained steadfast, combating the emergency situation until their strength failed them or a replacement is brought.
A case in point was the Balogun Market fire of January 29, where two firemen extinguishing the inferno on Oluwole Street were hit by falling hot bricks from the topmost floor of an eight-storey building, while a Red Cross Official who raced to administer first aid on them also received her share of it.
Despite these occurrences, their colleagues nearby did not stop the jobs they were doing as any break would have led to unimaginable damage.
The three officials were quickly whisked off the scene by security operatives into waiting ambulance and the rescue operation continued as if nothing happened.
Another instance was a near-death encounter between emergency responders led by NEMA’s Southwest Zonal Coordinator Ibrahim Farinloye and some suspected vandals at Arepo.
Farinloye, who at that time was spokesman for the Southwest zone of NEMA, put his life on the line to explain to the vandals while dead bodies littering their creeks after a devastating explosion must be evacuated.
“Remember my encounter with vandals at Arepo when they threatened to eliminate all the stakeholders that responded against their acts of economic sabotage, right inside the creek? They summoned me alone and demanded that I must not come with anyone. I met them in the creek; they asked what brought us there?
“I responded that it was purely humanitarian. I told them that such dead bodies can cause epidemic if not evacuated on time. That the bodies will decompose and can spread to cause health problems that can affect their children, siblings and relatives.
“They replied in appreciation of our efforts but pointed out that they had wanted to invade our location and shoot us all.
“As emergency responders, we face many threats to our lives yet, are never deterred. I also remember one time in Maiduguri, Borno State when I served as Acting Coordinator of Northeast Zonal Office.
Distress alert was received on attacks and we responded. I led the team and was in front while more of my colleagues tried to join me.
“An Improvised Explosive Device (IED) had been planted along the way and was ignited against my members of staff. Thankfully, none of them was hurt except the front screen of the vehicle that was destroyed.
“The entire area was worried about the stability of my members of staff but we all continued working. No one gave up,” said Farinloye during a discussion last week.
At the core of every emergency/safety worker is the passion to save lives. Their motivations, in spite of the little or no accolades they receive most times, remain the conviction that they are called to serve society and humanity.
They are aware that without their commitments to service, an incident could spread like wildfire and in no time, affect more people and communities.
Olukolade told our Correspondent he was motivated by the desire to save lives, a passion he had even before joining LASEMA in July 2007.
“But when I joined, my boss Dr. Femi Oke-Osanyintolu was the General Manager then and he encouraged me. He gave me so many responsibilities that I sometimes felt were too much for me and that I won’t be able to deliver.
Sometimes, when the job warranted sleeping over at the scenes, he would call my wife and tell her I was not coming home and give her reasons.
“That was how I became strong in the job and my wife also became a major source of encouragement. There are times I feel like giving up but my wife and children will spur me on. They remind me that I usually told them it was better to safe humanity, give back to the society and heaven will repay us.
“So, whenever there is an incident, my impulses just move me to the scene and I make sure I work with my team until danger is off the way because once I return home, my children will want to know every detail of what happened and the roles I played to help the situation.
“We have responded to numerous emergency incidents this year. In January, we had another pipeline explosion at Alimosho which also had devastating effects. Some of the Internally Displaced Persons from that incident are still at the Igando Relief Camp and now, we have this one.
“All disasters come with their own challenges. As a trained search and rescue officer, we are warned to count all emergency as important.
Once you pick up a job, you take up all the responsibilities and privileges. I do not celebrate new months and New Year. I see every single day as special and stay happy because we do not know what will happen the next hour,” said Olukolade.
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On the frequency of emergency incidents, Farinloye said there was a day rescuers responded to about 24 fire outbreaks which they successfully managed without any loss of lives.
“The only incident that could have caused us embarrassment was the Amu Market Fire in Mushin where more than 40 people could have died but due to the diligence of all and especially the National Assembly (NASS) member representing Mushin II, who added his voice in convincing the residents trying to retrieve goods from a three-storey building despite warnings from NEMA that the said building will cave in due to intensity of the inferno.
“Security agencies were drafted in to forcibly disperse the ignorant brothers’ keepers. Just 15 minutes after, the three-storey building crashed without anyone trapped.
“There are lots of challenges that we face on the field both from the people and the elites. There’s the issue of turf protection by stakeholders, though this is not peculiar to Nigeria. It is a problem across the world but we managed to deliver our services.
Then, there is the issue of inadequate information sharing among stakeholders. If there is appropriate information, all statutory personnel would deliver.
“We also face the challenge of victims or vulnerable population withholding vital information that could help contain a situation quickly. A case of reference is Lagos Island fire disasters.
One of the high rise buildings had a gasoline tank on top of its roof and several other generators on the floors and when there was fire outbreak, they did not call fire service immediately.
“They tried to hide it until it got out of hand before they called fire service. Even then, they did not reveal the exact contents of the building but only told the fire services that there were fabrics and other smaller items.
“Fire Services were using ordinary water for the fire but it got to a stage that we stopped and insisted they must tell us what was in the building before someone confided in us.
“This case was a great threat to the lives of responders. The same thing happens in building collapse. Nobody will be available to help with the plan of the house, the number of people in the house or location of electrical switch boards. Responders will be working blindly without direction caused by the affected people,” Farinloye explained.
Noting that emergency management was everyone’s business, Farinloye said they were working to ensure that Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) imperatives’ bottom-top approach was entrenched in our society.
“The Director-General of NEMA, Mustapha Maihajja has emphasised and directed that zonal, territorial and operational offices must ensure that grassroots stakeholders such as gender-based associations, transport unions, faith and community-based organisations are trained on disaster prevention and reduction of risks associated with long-term hazards.
“We have been doing this and it is part of the reasons we have far less
casualties in disasters in recent times. We are going ahead to have fire marshals trained in various sections of our markets,” he said.
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