The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission on Wednesday trained 65 Fire Wardens and Marshals on safety, emergency response and fire-fighting techniques.
The Fire Marshals training was organised in Abuja by the NUPRC in collaboration with the Federal Fire Service.
Speaking at the training, Emmanuel Okpale, Acting, Assistant Director, Safety Control, NUPRC, said the training became necessary because of the need for more safety consciousness on global happenings and insecurity.
Okpale said the in-house training was basically on how to respond to emergency situations, with emphasis on the aspect of safety in the buildings, workplaces and how to ensure safety of the entire staff.
He said the training was aimed at exposing the marshals on how to ensure safety in the case of emergency and how people could be evacuated safely and gathered within the designated muster point.
He said: “There are a lot of things happening in the world presently, insecurity is growing, so those saddled with this responsibility need to know what to do during emergencies.
“There are basic equipment we use for responding to emergencies like the Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation method and Automated External Defibrillator, which can be deployed in the offices in case of emergency situations.”
Okpale, while describing the training as a global best practice, urged companies and organisations to imbibe awareness and preparedness on emergency response and equally adopt NUPRC’s method in order to save lives.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the training featured some FCT Fire Marshals, who exposed the personnel to the real term emergency situation, roles of fire marshals, emergency fire-fighting drills and practical on emergency response.
Speaking on: “Behaviour Best Safety Culture and Combustion,” Ibrahim Muhammad, Superintendent of Fire and Public Relations Officer, FCT Fire Service, dwelt on how to improve people’s safety consciousness.
Muhammad said: “In trying to do that you have to make them imbibe safety culture to change their behaviour towards safety conscious.
“One has to observe and put safety first in order not to cause injury to others.
“You can change your present attitude where you work to be more safety conscious and ensure you have the knowledge of safety.
“While you are doing it, make sure you follow the standard operating procedure of every assignment given.
“You must know the administrative way by training people, engineering control and by using Personal Protection Equipment, which include helmets, safety boots and gloves among others to be safe against hazards.”
Muhammad advised other organisations and agencies that would like to indulge in similar training not to limit their staff to only training but organise and put in their calendars a safety week annually for training.
This, he said, would expose them on all aspects of hazards at work place and home, which would be well disseminated to spur safety consciousness.
According to him, because of activities of different organisations, some need basic training while some, especially those in the oil and gas sector need to extend it to other aspects because of oil and gas fire.
