The Taraba Fire Service on Wednesday called on the state government to help in refurbishing old and damaged firefighting trucks in the state.
The Commander of the Federal Fire Service in Taraba, Mr Samson Dungus, made the call during a working visit by Federal Fire Service Controller-General Liman Ibrahim to the fire services in the state.
Dungus said that the state has not less than 10 non-functional firefighting trucks, hence the request for their renovation.
Dungus also said that the repairs of these trucks would help to improve the service delivery of the state and federal fire services as they complement one another.
“The state currently has only two working firefighting trucks; one at the government house and the other at the state fire service headquarters,” he said.
The state commander further requested for the recruitment of young firefighters as he stated that most of the personnel at the state level were at the verge of retirement.
“It is important to recruit young and energetic persons to take over from most of the old firefighters and learn from their experiences,” he said.
He also noted that the training of staff was of paramount importance to the growth of the service in the state.
He pleaded for the office space of the state and federal fire service to be renovated.
“Provision of state fire tankers is important as well as vehicles for rapid intervention that can attend to car fires in areas where the roads are not easily accessible,” he said.
Mr Sale Mijinyawa, Director of Taraba State Fire Service, said that the emergence of the Federal Fire Service in the state had helped to improve the capacity and method of firefighting in the state.
The director said that the state command had a staff strength of 27 firefighters which was not enough to cater for the whole state.
The controller-general, who later embarked on the spot assessment of the federal and state fire services in the state, promised to deploy one modern firefighting truck which would be commissioned on Tuesday.
“Gov. Darius Ishaku and the Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, will be present to commission the state of the art firefighting truck,
“The deployment of trucks is a continuous exercise because we are expecting the delivery of 10 more new firefighting trucks.
“What is important now is how well this truck will be maintained,” he said.
According to Liman, the office structure of the service in the state is solid but needs renovation
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