The Level of Risk and Preparedness of Traders to Fire Accident

The Level of Risk and Preparedness of Traders to Fire Accident

This study shall be aimed at assessing the level of risk and preparedness of traders to fire accidents in Mile III Market, Port Harcourt. To achieve this aim, the following objectives shall guide the course of this research:
1. Identify fire accident predisposing factors in Mile III Market.
2. Assess fire risk reduction strategies in Mile III Market.
3. Assess fire accident mitigation preparedness of Mile III Market traders.
4. Investigate awareness and perception of Mile III Market traders.
5. Compare fire accident reduction and mitigation preparedness with International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR) standards.

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

Fire is a chemical reaction created by self-sustained oxidation of fuel that emits heat, light, and smoke (Furness &Muckett, 2007; Factory Mutual Engineering Corporation, 1967). Upon discovery, fire became an indispensable element as part of the four elements (earth, fire, air, and water) known to primitive man. It is of great importance as it serves as a source of heat and light to man. Despite the immense benefit fire provides man, it is potentially disastrous when not properly managed.
According to Bond et al (2005), fire has been an important factor in the dynamics of the Earth’s climate and the development of biomes since its widespread occurrence began 400-350million years ago. In a fire-prone ecosystem, humans have always co-existed with fire in the landscape. Its use can be seen as the first anthropogenic tool that has affected ecosystem dynamics beyond the very local scale.
Unlike other natural hazards such as earthquakes or volcanic eruptions, fire is perceived as an avoidable risk, and enormous resources are directed towards fire suppression efforts, particularly in the more developed world like the United States of America, Russia, etc (Furness and Mucket, 2007).
Yet the now widely acknowledged consequence is that fire suppression often comes at the cost of increased risk or more severe or extensive future fire within fire-prone landscapes has to date only led to limited changes to fire suppression practice in most regions (Belay and Harry, 2009).
Each ecosystem is adapted to a specific fire regime (i.e. fire type and recurrence) which could be understood as “good fire”. However, when the fire regime moves away from the established one (e.g. owing to human influence), the ecosystem resilience of fire may be surpassed. The resulting long-tasting damage to the ecosystem would thus be caused by bad fire, (Belay and Harry 2009). From an ecosystem perspective, it is, therefore, relatively easy to distinguish between “good” and “bad fire”. In most cases, however, whether a fire is considered “good” or “bad” will depend on its context, which can be ecological, social, economic, or a combination of all.
It is the role of the scientific community to provide an objective basis for society to
understand and judge the consequences of the choices we make in how we manage, modify and coexist with fire (Alarie and Luo, 2004).
It is also worth noting that aside from human loss the direct financial cost such as the damage to homes and other infrastructures, often dominates the perception of fire impacts, and an increase in these is often heightened in reports. The data on fire disasters with continuous annual records of economic damage (1987-2014) gives annual global values ranging from US $4.6million to the US $12,318 million (an annual average of US $ 2677 million). These estimate of losses, however, only includes damage to property, crops, and livestock and do not reflect losses from fire events not classified as a disaster. However, suppression or mitigation cost are not
considered in these figures. Other important economic parameters not included are the cost arising from human losses, injuries, and longer-term health implications.
In Nigeria, today risk assessment and fire accident preparedness is a practice not common in homes, factories, schools, and marketplaces. This majorly accounts for frequent fire incidents in Nigeria at homes and industries. Yearly, cases of fire incidents are reported in Nigeria without any sign of cessation. (Alagoa and Derefaka, 2011) nonetheless, fire outbreaks in Nigeria are caused by many factors which include, Storing of petrol in living houses, Careless disposal of cigarette stubs in living house markets and offices, Use of adulterated fuels, Power surge, electric spark, illegal connections, cookers, and gas cylinders. Some fire outbreaks are
caused by human beings, with evil intent.
Because Nigeria is a tropical region. During the dry season, there is likely to be a fire outbreak compared to the rainy season. Fire disasters, like every other disaster, may be natural or human-made incidents and they can produce large-scale disruption of societal infrastructure, present immediate threat to public health, and require external assistance for response (Biadt & Drummond. 2007).
According to Rowland et al (2007), there are four major problems associated with fire disasters that retard or impede development. They are loss of resources, interruption of programs and switching from crucial resources to other shorter-term calamities, disruption of the non-formal sector, the adverse impacts on the investment climate.
It is impossible to live in a risk-free environment. We all face some degree of risk each day, whether it is to live, our possessions from theft or fire accident, or our personal space from pollution like noise.
In Nigeria, the risk associated with fire accidents has become a major concern, especially in market fire accidents. In the recent past, there have been reports of fire accidents in markets in Port Harcourt. In December 2014, a fire gutted the New Layout market in the town axis of Port Harcourt; this resulted in the loss of goods and properties worth millions of naira (Alagoa and Derefaka, 2011). A similar incident took place in Mile 1 market, Port Harcourt, in 2013 (information, 2013).
The assessment of the risk of a market fire accident and the preparedness by traders in the event of its occurrence has become imperative. In light of this, risk assessment– is the process by which hazards facing a particular community are identified and analyzed in terms of the threat they pose, taking into account the presence of hazards and how vulnerable the market is to fire accidents.
It is important to note that loss of goods and properties is not the only problem traders face in the incident fire outbreak, but also, the fire becomes a hazard to people.

1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

The world has in the past three decades experienced a succession of disasters such as floods, fires, storms, earthquakes volcanic eruptions, and landslides. One of such disasters is the worst fire incident that took place in Mexico. Most, if not all, major cities of the world have experienced massive fire outbreaks. This disaster has claimed thousands of life and loss of properties and afflicted a terrible toll on developing countries in particular, whereby disaster diverts attention and resources from development needed desperately to escape poverty, to mitigation (Victoria, 2011).
In Africa, there are documented events of fire disasters. For example, some major fire disasters have occurred in Zambia – the gutting of Society House, Cabinet 0ffice, Chisokeni Market in Kitwe in 1998, and Indeni Oil Refinery in 2008 (Disaster Management and Mitigation Unit, 2004). Nigeria has also had its share of ravaging fire incidents. The most devastating of the fire disasters in the nation’s history was the pipeline explosion in Jesse, Delta State on 18th October 1998 which claimed 1,082 lives, the highest number of casualties for a single fire event. Bomb explosions at the Nigerian Military Cantonment in Ikeja, Lagos on January 27, 2002, was another terrifying fire outbreak leaving 800 dead and thousands homeless. About 5,127 persons died between 1998 and 2013 owing to fire disasters. More so, about 50 billion worth of property was disclosed  lost annually to fire disasters by the Minister of Interior,
Abba Moro (Popoola et al, 2016). Similar incidents have occurred in Port Harcourt, and in the case of market fire outbreaks, the incident has become frequent in recent times.
The problem of fire risk in the Mile III market has become a recurrent decimal. As there is hardly a year without a major outbreak of fire in this market. The last case of the outbreak was on 24 December 2017 when goods worth millions of naira were destroyed. It has been investigated that the major causes of fire outbreak in mile three market are due to varieties of factors which include, over-congested market place, the use of woods as a partition in the market.
These have majorly contributed to fire incidents in mile three market. Also, most shop owners store fuel in their shops for sale or sometimes to use in their generators. Fuel, being highly flammable can cause a fire outbreak at the slightest ignition and also electrical appliances.
The effect of these outbreaks is the loss of goods sometimes running into millions of naira, loss of lives, burns resulting in permanent damage to the skin, raising down of properties, and finally the attendant effect of the smoke on the environment.
The negative consequences of fire disasters are enormous and tremendous and as such, there is a need to curb the occurrence of fire disasters in our society. There is a need to have a better understanding of the nexus between market fire outbreaks and factors that predispose a market in Port Harcourt to fire outbreaks. It is equally necessary to examine the preparedness, as well in response to complex fire outbreaks in the market, as such, Mile III Market, which is a major
market in Port Harcourt is to be investigated.

1.3 AIM AND OBJECTIVES

This study shall be aimed at assessing the level of risk and preparedness of traders to fire accidents in Mile III Market, Port Harcourt. To achieve this aim, the following objectives shall guide the course of this research:
1. Identify fire accident predisposing factors in Mile III Market.
2. Assess fire risk reduction strategies in Mile III Market.
3. Assess fire accident mitigation preparedness of Mile III Market traders.
4. Investigate awareness and perception of Mile III Market traders.
5. Compare fire accident reduction and mitigation preparedness with International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR) standards.

1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

1. How vulnerable is Mile III Market to fire accident?
2. What measures are in place to reduce the risk of fire accidents in Mile III Market?
3. How prepared are traders in Mile III Market to cope in the event of a fire accident at the market?
4. What is the perception and level of awareness of traders in Mile III Market to fire accident?
5. Is the accident reduction and mitigation plan preparedness plan in conformance with International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR) standards?

1.5 HYPOTHESIS FORMULATION

Ho: there is no statistically significant difference in the traders’ fire accident preparedness in the Mile III market

1.6 STUDY AREA

1.6.1 Geographical Location
Mile III Market is located in the city of Port Harcourt, under the Port Harcourt Local Government Area (PHALGA). Port Harcourt is the capital of Rivers State and an important city in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. Port Harcourt was created by the British colonial administration between 1912 and 1914. Initially, the study area was just 30,000 acres, but with the discovery of oil, in 1950 Port Harcourt expanded quickly beyond its original boundaries (presently about 470km2), mainly towards the northern sides, as the eastern, western, and southern sides of Port Harcourt are bounded by swamps, creeks, and rivers (Ayotamuno and Gobo, 2004).
Diobu consists of three main extensions, namely: Mile I, Mile II, and Mile III. It is bothered by New GRA to the north, D-line to the northeast, University of Science and Technology to the northwest, Old GRA to the east, and Kidney island to the southeast. The geographical location of mile 3 Diobu is 4o 47’24’’N to 40 25’ 15” and 6o59’36’’E to 60 32’ 19” E

Figure 1.1: Map showing the study area
1.6.2 Seasonal Variations of Climate in Port Harcourt
Port Harcourt’s climate falls within the sub-equatorial climate belt. Temperature and humidity are high throughout the year. The area is marked by two distinct seasons – the wet and the dry seasons – with 70 percent of the annual rains falling between April and August, while 22 percent is spread over the three months of September to November. The driest months are from December to March (Ayotamuno et al., 2000).
1.6.3 Population
Port Harcourt is influenced by urbanization or urban sprawl whereby smaller communities have merged and formed megacities. The reason is due to the high influx of people resulting in the rapid growth of the population size in the study area due to the expansion of oil and gas industries (Nwankwoala et al, 2012). The population of Port-Harcourt as of 2017 is projected to be 1,582,592 with a 3.4% growth rate (ayotamuno and Gobo 2018).
Diobu is a densely populated neighborhood of Port-Harcourt, with an estimated population of about 200,000 persons. Because of this high population of persons and limited land space, the houses are always not spaced to meet up accommodation and business demands.
This practically explains why some houses and shops are clustered together in mile 3 market.
Also, these explain the frequent occurrence of fire outbreaks in these markets.

1.6.4 Economic /commercial activities

Port Harcourt is an industrialized city. It is the hub of the petroleum industry in Nigeria, as such, the dominant economic activities within the city are oil and gas-related, thus there are present in the city the major oil and gas firms in Nigeria such as Nigerian Agip Oil Company, Shell Petroleum Development Company, Total E&P, etc. and a host of oil servicing firms.
Aside from the petroleum industry, there are companies in the manufacturing sector and the maritime sector. Commercial activities in Port Harcourt are on a large scale, making the city a nodal point for trade, serving neighboring cities and states within the south-south, southeast geopolitical regions of Nigeria. Port Harcourt is linked to all parts of the world through its international air and sea ports. Because of the rising levels of industrial and commercial activities in Port-Harcourt, this city is most likely to experience fire outbreaks and fire accidents.

1.6.5 Disaster risk and emergency institutions in Port Harcourt
Port Harcourt is the capital of Rivers State and one of the fastest-growing cities in terms of population in Nigeria. This is a result of increased industrial and commercial activities in Port Harcourt. This means Port Harcourt is increasingly becoming vulnerable to disaster and risk.
They are varieties of disaster risk and emergency institutions in Port Harcourt to help forecast, mitigate and respond to cases of disaster in Port Harcourt.
They include the Rivers State fire service whose office is at Aba Road, Mile one park. The Rivers State fire service is the state-owned firefighting body in Rivers state, primarily tasked with providing fire protection, emergency response, and safety services to the state, its residents, and visitors. The fire services as stations located at Borokiri, Port Harcourt, Degema, Ahoada, and Rumuodamaya.
The international committee of Red Cross whose main function falls into four areas. Blood collection, disaster relief, aid to soldiers and victims of war aid community education and outreach. With an office at No 64 King Perekule street Port Harcourt, Rivers State Nigeria. Other health institutions like the Braitwait memorial hospital (BMH), University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital (UPTH), and most health centers and hospitals.
Emergency transport services are also preset including ambulances and helicopters.
Also in Port Harcourt is the National Emergency Management Agency. Its core mandate is to formulate policy on all activities relating to disaster management in Nigeria and coordinate the plans and programs for efficient and effective response to disease at National Level and also to monitor the state of preparedness against all disasters NEMA office in Port Harcourt is at 51, Ikwerre Road Mile 1, Diobu, Port Harcourt, Rivers State.