Most buildings in
Nigeria especially Abuja don’t have emergency exit doors thereby putting the
occupants at risk in the event of accident.
John Okoro who visited his friend’s
office in a three storey building complex in Wuse, Abuja, Nigeria’s federal capital
has a bitter tale to tell.
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| A storey building with burglary proof |
John said he narrowly escaped death when
there was fire outbreak in the office and there was no exit route except the
main entrance where everybody struggled to escape.
He said he sustained an injury on his
should while struggling with others to escape. “We were lucky the building was
not engulfed. We would have been trapped because the building has only one entrance
and exit route,” he explained.
An exit route is a continuous and
unobstructed path of exit travel from any point within a workplace to a place
of safety. Normally, a workplace must have at least two exit routes to permit
prompt evacuation during an emergency, however, more than two exits may be required
if the number of employees, size of the building, or arrangement of the
workplace will not allow employees to evacuate safely.
However, exit route doors must be
unlocked from the inside. They must be free of devices or alarms that could
restrict use of the exit route if the device or alarm fails.
Meanwhile, many buildings in Abuja and
Nigeria as a whole have only an entrance without emergency exit. And because of
the security situation in the country, many landlords erected burglary proofs on
both the doors and windows making it difficult for occupants of such buildings
to escape when there is emergency.
A source at the Department of
Development Control, DDC, who spoke on anonymity, said some of the building
plans were approved by the Abuja Municipal Area Council, AMAC and not the
department which is the statutory body saddled with the responsibility of
granting building plans.
Tukur Ibrahim Bakori, deputy director of
development permit, north of the DDC said the building plans approved by the
agency was that bungalows and duplexes must have many entrance and exit routes,
while shopping malls/complexes must have staircases on the left, right and at
the back with fire proofs.
“For hotel, we always insist you must have
a minimum of three entrances, fire exit, delivery and main entrance route,”
Bakori further explained.
According to him, the agency does not give
approval for burglary proofs on windows and doors even for underground floors,
although because of security challenges in the country, the agency no longer
frown at it.
E.O. Machie, public relations officer of
the Federal Fire Service said the service would soon submit a bill to the
National Assembly on building code in the country, which when passed, would
enable the service compel every landlord to make provision for fire-fighting
equipment like fire extinguisher and fire sprinklers before the building plan
could be approved.
He advised property owners to put in
place fire blanket and fire extinguisher in their houses or offices and ensure
the extinguishers are regularly serviced and refilled after use.
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