National Fire Authority attended to a fire incident at the Grantham Road in Raiwaqa, Suva this afternoon which resulted in one apartment in the housing barrack being destroyed in the fire.
NFA Suva received a fire emergency call at 1316hrs and upon arrival at 1324hrs, the fire crew found the middle apartment of the concrete barrack fully engulfed in flames.
Our priority was to ensure that the fire did not spread to the two apartments adjacent to the apartment that was on fire.
The fire fighters fought hard and were able to contain the fire within the middle apartment. However, the other two adjustments also sustained some damages since the fire had quickly spread through the ceiling and through the extension of the building.
Three apartments in the barracks sustained no damage. No one was injured in the incident.
The firefighters extinguish the fire with the deliveries of water from the fire trucks and from the fire hydrant.
Fire Teams in Suva trucks and Valelevu were deployed to the fire scene to extinguish the fire. By the time, NFA fire trucks arrived at the fire scene, the fire had already spread.
NFA fire investigations are currently underway.
NFA again reminds the public to take extra precautions to avoid such unfortunate incidents.
NFA CEO John O’Connor is urging members of the community to take fire safety seriously.
“We must all take fire safety seriously since it is one of the most dangerous disasters,” Mr O’Connor said.
“The fire incident in Raiwaqa has increased the number of structural fire this year to fifty-nine which is a great concern to the NFA,” Mr O’Connor said.
Mr O’Connor is encouraging communities to work with their local Fire Station and arrange for fire safety and prevention awareness programs for their local communities.
“Members of the community must focus on fire prevention to stop fire incidents in their homes.
“NFA needs the support from the members of the community and we are urging members of the community to be more vigilant and regularly check their homes on a daily basis and get rid of all things that can start unplanned fires in homes,” Mr O’Connor said.
The NFA CEO is also urging the members of the community to immediately call NFA on 911 emergency number or if the call can’t get through to this 911 emergency number, they can call NFA on 910.
“According to preliminary investigation, the fire had started earlier. According to the member of the public who called NFA through the NFA direct line, the apartment was fully engulfed in flames when he called. Had someone called earlier, the outcome of our firefighting would have been very different as such we are humbly urging the members of the community to call NFA as quickly as possible even if there is only smoke or a small sparks,” Mr O’Connor added.
NFA