05 Oct Liberia’s fire service seeks support from Nigeria

The Liberian Fire Service Chief, Colonel Alex Dickson, has appealed for support from Nigeria’s Federal Fire Service (FFF) in capacity building.

Following a visit to the Federal Fire Service in Abuja, Dickson was quick to praise the Nigerian service and added he felt his country had a lot to learn from them.

A statement issued by Ugo Huan, FFS public relations officer read: “Col. Dickson says Liberia, as a country still recovering from its past civil unrest, has a lot to learn from Nigeria on repositioning of its Fire department, especially with regards to administrative structure and rapid transformation, seeing how the Federal Fire Service, within a short period of time, has been able to transform from a moribund Fire Service to one of the best in Africa.”

The Federal Fire Service has made impressive steps to reposition itself from a declining fire service to one that is the envy of Africa. In just six years it has grown from just three firefighting trucks to 150 state-of-the-art, modern trucks.

Controller General of the Federal Fire Service, Dr. Liman Alhaji Ibrahim, responded to Dickson’s praise: “The service has also increased its staff strength to over 5,000 firefighters manning fire stations  across the country, a feat which was achieved by the determination of the present leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari.”

He went on to confirm that the Nigerian FFF is willing to provide all necessary support to help transform the Liberian fire service. It’s not the first time the FFF has offered its expertise – last month it agreed to work alongside the Democratic Republic of Congo to establish its own national fire service.