Assessment of the Level of Compliance with Fire Safety Measures in Residential Buildings in Minna, Niger State

Abstract

Fire safety within the home is an extremely important issue, especially in mixed use premises and where unrelated occupiers, who live independently from one another, share common areas of the same building. Most residential fires are caused by the misuse of domestic equipment or by a wrong behaviour of the occupants in residential buildings. These factors are multiplied by the number of units or occupants. The study assessed the level of compliance with fire safety measures of residents in residential buildings in Minna, Niger State. Geographic Information System was adopted to identify residential buildings affected by fire in Minna. Structured questionnaires were also used to examine causes of fire disaster and occupants’ level of fire safety provision in residential buildings in Minna, Niger State. The result of the findings shows that candle light, electrical faults, kerosene stove and fuel explosion are some of the causes of fire disaster in the area. The level of fire safety provision, in terms of fire prevention and firefighting, in residential buildings in Minna was revealed to be low. It was thus concluded that the level of compliance with fire safety measures in residential buildings in Minna, Niger State is low. The study therefore recommended that public enlightenment should be carried out to sensitize building occupants about effective fire prevention and firefighting in the area.