An average of 6 fire fatalities per year were recorded by the National Fire Authority since 2016.
While highlighting the second fire fatality for this year, which occurred last Sunday at Jittu Estate in Raiwaqa, NFA Chief Executive Officer Puamau Sowane says any loss of life during a fire is tragic and something firefighters hard worked to avoid.
He also sends his condolences to the families that lost their loved ones.
He says last year and 2018 were the lowest, with 3 fire fatalities.
Sowane says their role is to save lives and properties, and they need the public’s support to do that.
He adds this support comes in simple forms such as alerting the people at the first sign of a fire or providing information crucial to fighting a fire, such as whether there are people in a house during a fire.
The CEO says the fire crew's priority is to extinguish a fire and stop it from spreading to nearby houses, especially in a residential area, however, the availability of crucial information helps firefighters do their duties better and efficiently.
He is urging members of the public to contact them as soon as possible to give their crews a fighting chance to save lives and properties.
Puamau says they are also urging the public to resolve their disputes in an amicable manner and not to resort to actions where families lose all their belongings, which is then compounded by a death from fire.
The CEO adds they have had similar instances this year and previously when family members resorted to such actions and calls on members of the public to refrain from such actions.
Puamau also highlighted that the NFA Command Centre was alerted at 5.11am about a property fire call at Bau Tikina Road in Nausori.
He says the duty crew at Nausori Fire Station was dispatched to the scene and arrived at 5.28am to find a corrugated iron home fully engulfed in flames and immediately tried to put the fire out.
He says by 6.11am, the crew managed to extinguish the fire, but the structure sustained 100 percent damage.
The toll-free line for NFA is 910.
