LAGOS CAUTIONS ON DEEP WELL TRAPPING

Lagos State Fire Service Director Rasak Fadipe on Wednesday urged the general public especially artisans whose activities revolve round working inside deep well or confined space to take necessary safety precautions. Fadipe pledged the agency's readiness to partner and support well diggers towards the provision of protection gears such as helmet, breathing apparatus amongst others.
The call came at the backdrop of the incident at Ojodu Berger area of Lagos State where two men were recently trapped inside an underground tank of a petrol filling station during a rehabilitation exercise.
Bearing in mind constant occurrence of people been trapped in either confined space or inside deep well, the situation, he said, calls for concern and must be tackled professionally in order to prevent future occurrences.
According to him, over 26 rescue emergency calls were received between last year till date on domestic well drowning or confined space trapping.  Recalling further, a case of a woman who was recovered inside the deep well after being declared missing at Ijegun, outskirt of Lagos.  And noted that negligence of the people and delay or failure of witnesses to call relevant authority that would promptly and efficiently respond to the rescue exercise are major cause of lost of  lives and properties.
 The fire chief explained that a delay in the rescue exercise could be dangerous as victims are likely to hit their heads on the well concrete or inhale toxic fumes such as ammonia gas which could quickly lead to internal bleeding, drowning, drowsiness, damage to the skull which leads to death.
 "Firefighters as first responder to incidents are professionally trained to handle cases such as fire incidents, well trapping, drowning, collapsed building and other  rescue and recovery exercise and therefore should be alerted as quick as possible  to save the situation and rescue victims alive rather than calling after all efforts to save victims have failed.
 He commended community participation in incident management but strictly maintained that a distress call to the fire stations at the instance of a fire outbreak or other related emergencies could make a difference.
Fadipe urged lagosians to adhere to basic safety tips guiding the digging, rehabilitation and working inside a deep well or confined space.