Five families from Nadoria Village without a home due to early morning fire

Five families from Nadoria Village in Dreketi, Rewa, are without a home after five houses were destroyed in a fire this morning.

National Fire Authority CEO Puamau Sowane says the NFA’s National Command Centre received a call through the 910 emergency line at 1.38am today from Nadoria Village alerting them to a property fire.

Sowane says a crew from the Nausori Fire Station deployed immediately and arrived at the scene to find four houses fully engulfed in flames.

He says the Nausori crew, with assistance from Nakasi and Suva fire stations had challenges putting out the fire due to low water pressure in the area.

He adds this affected their ability to quickly put out the fire because the fire crews had to rely on their own supply and the tanker from the Suva Fire Station.

The CEO says the crews also alerted the Water Authority of Fiji team to boost water pressure in the area and then got into contact with representatives from Energy Fiji Limited to switch off power to the properties.

He says after a little over an hour at the scene, firefighters managed to fully extinguish the flames but the five houses were completely destroyed.

The NFA CEO is reiterating his call for members of the public to practice fire safety awareness, particularly in a village setting where special consideration on spacing of homes has to be taken seriously.

He says where there are no fire walls in between homes, the only safest method is to allow ample spaces in between houses as fire breakers.

He further says for this instance, the homes were all very close to each other allowing fire to spread easily to from one house to another and this is something that the relevant authority has to seriously look into to ensure rural and village homes comply to some standard of fire compliance and standards.

Sowane says it is unfortunate that incidents such as this have to occur for people to be aware of the risks and dangers posed by residential fires.

He adds members of the public need to ensure that their houses are fire safe and ensure that all electrical appliances and power points are switched off when not in use.

He further adds that people should also need to ensure that all electrical fittings and wirings are inspected and passed by licensed electricians.

The CEO says it is sad to see people lose all their possessions and their dreams of home ownership perish within seconds and he is urging the public to teach their children preventative measures to avoid fires occurring in their homes.

Sowane says it is fortunate that no one was injured and no lives were lost.

He says NFA Fire Inspectors are working at the site to determine the probable causes of fire.

He adds in the event of a fire incident, please quickly call 910 and give the firefighters the quickest opportunity to attend to a fire incident.