Analysis of Fire Incidences in Domestic and Public Buildings of Some Selected States in North- Central Nigeria.

Abstract

This paper examined trends in fire outbreaks in three states (Kwara, Niger and Plateau), in relation to the use of building and the causes of reported fire incidents from 1990 to 1999: The relationships between these variables were determined using simple regression analysis. Significant relationship (F> at 0.05) was observed in all the three states between the total number of fire incidents and the proportion of those fires that occurred in domestic buildings. By comparison, the proportion of such fires that occurred in public buildings was significant only in Niger and Kwara States. Electrical faults were a significant cause of fire outbreaks in all three states sampled, while gas faults was significant only in Niger and Kwara States. It was, concluded that the greater proportion of fire outbreaks in all the three states (i) is due to electrical faults, and (ii) occurs in domestic, rather than public buildings. This paper then recommended that special team of researchers should be set up by the government of each of these states to investigate the reasons why electrical faults fire and domestic buildings fire are more frequent and at the same time find a lasting solution to reduce it to the barest minimum.