Using 1963 Fire Act to fight 2026 fires unacceptable, FG declares

.Unveils vision of new fire and rescue service
.Cuts response time to 15 minutes, 119 lives saved

By Omeiza Ajayi

ABUJA: The Federal Government has said it makes no sense to continue to rely on a fire law enacted in 1963 to tackle fire emergencies in 2026, as it prepares to send a new Federal Fire and Rescue Service Act to President Bola Tinubu soon for assent.

Minister of Interior, Dr Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, said this on Monday in Abuja at the opening ceremony and stakeholders’ conference of the 2026 National Fire Safety Week.

“You cannot have a Federal Fire Service Act of 1963, and you think it would be 2026-compliant. It doesn’t make sense” the minister said.

He said the old law denies firefighters the powers they need to do their work. “If the law does not give you the power to do something, no matter how good that action is, once you do it, it becomes illegal. There is no right way of doing something that is legally wrong,” he said.

Tunji-Ojo said the review of the Act had been completed and the new bill should be laid before the President in a matter of days. He said it was the first time in 63 years that any government had taken up the task.

The minister said the new law would open the sector to private sector intervention and move the service beyond firefighting. “When it comes to hazards, fire is only one of the hazards. Even flood, water can be hazardous,” he said.

He said he wanted a Federal Fire Service that responds to medical emergencies, floods, chemical spills, toxic materials, bomb attacks and earthquakes. He added that fire suppression was only one of about twenty responsibilities of fire services elsewhere. “I want to see a Federal Fire Service whose specialisation is rescue operations,” he said.

Tunji-Ojo also called for stronger fire inspection and code enforcement, with volunteer fire marshals in every district and town. He said the service should work with education authorities to make rescue skills part of school curricula.

“If anything happens, maybe somebody faints, what percentage of Nigerians can even do a simple resuscitation process?” he asked.

The minister said the service should also investigate emergencies beyond fire incidents, and should chair a council of fire and rescue services to coordinate policy across the country.

On performance, the minister said the average response time to fire incidents was between 32 and 35 minutes when the administration came into office. He said it now stands at 15 minutes, 22 seconds.

He said that as of August, 119 lives were saved with no life lost to fire in 36 incidents nationwide.

“There is a lot he’s working under the old law, so there’s a limit to how well he can do this,” Tunji-Ojo said of the Controller-General of the Federal Fire Service, Olumode Samuel Adeyemi.

The minister said the National Fire Academy was 85 per cent complete and would be running by the end of the year, with commissioning expected in December. He described it as “one of the best academies in the world”.

Earlier, CGF Olumode said the week’s programme includes simultaneous awareness campaigns in the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, and the unveiling of fire safety booklets translated into Nigerian indigenous languages.

He said the service was working with the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) on fire safety infrastructure in public tertiary institutions, and with the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON) to extend fire service presence to every local government.