NFA calls on the public to be very cautious when attempting a fire rescue

The CEO of the National Fire Authority, Sowane Puamau, says any loss of life from fire is a tragic event after a man in his 40s died while trying to assist a homeowner whose house was engulfed in flames in Nadroumai Village, Nadroga.

The NFA says the Sigatoka Fire Station received a running call at 1.04pm on Monday from a member of the public reporting a structural fire incident at Nadroumai Village.

They say the on-duty crew immediately responded with one truck and four officers and arrived at the scene at 1.35pm to find a two-bedroom concrete and timber house fully engulfed in flames.

The Authority says they established 1 delivery of 2 lengths from their tank supply to stop the fire from further spreading and managed to extinguish the fire.

The house belonged to a 42-year-old Methodist Church of Fiji steward and was occupied by seven people, including a 65-year-old stroke patient who was bedridden, a 42-year-old woman and four children aged 15, 10, 9 and 3 years old.

The NFA says a villager who first raised the alarm ran into the burning home and rescued the stroke patient before calling on other villagers for help to remove the family’s belongings.

They say a villager who rushed to help later collapsed while trying to remove belongings from the house, and they rushed him to the hospital, but he was pronounced dead on arrival.

The Authority says this all happened before the fire crew reached the village.

The house sustained 100 percent damage, and the cost of damage is estimated at $100,000.

An investigation is being carried out to determine the probable cause of the fire.

While sharing his condolences, the CEO is warning the public to be very cautious when attempting a fire rescue because it requires specific skills and knowledge of fire science and characteristics of flame propagation rate.

He says heavy smoke inside a burning building can choke anyone irrespective of age or size, particularly, if the person is not trained to do such rescue and doesn't know the skills required, which could be fatal.

Puamau says people need to understand that structural fires occur in residential, commercial or community-based buildings flame propagation rates vary depending on the type of building materials used in building construction.

He adds the degree of flame propagation and radiant heat generation differs, and buildings that are constructed without proper engineering plans can allow a significant wind flow inside the building that may considerably propagate structural fires.

The CEO says many other combustible materials such as wood furniture, clothes, cooking gas, oil, and non-combustible materials such as metal furniture and ceramic appliances may come in contact with structural fires and could cause significant amounts of flame, radiant heat, hot surfaces, hot liquids, and vapours.

He says any metal with a low melting temperature could easily melt in structural fires.

Puamau says the presence of flames, radiant heat, hot surfaces, hot liquids, vapours and molten metal substances in structural fires make it very dangerous for any living being and therefore, they are calling on members of the public to be very careful about attempting to assist in fire rescue.

He says flames double their size every minute, particularly if the fire load is heavy in any particular building structure.

The CEO adds in this situation, a flashover rate and heat flux could be immensely high, meaning the heat radiant can kill if a person is too near without proper equipment.

Puamau says they encourage community members to reach out to their nearest fire station to establish their Community Fire Warden.

He says this training program is conducted free by NFA to all communities, and it requires two weeks of solid training on basic firefighting skills, how to avoid unwanted fires, basic first aid skills and responding to any type of emergencies within their community.