Abstract
Fire disaster preparedness (FDP) is of paramount importance in preventing the globe’s most prevalent disaster. This has been a big issue for developing nations. The study investigated FDP among residents in a high-income community of a part in Southwestern Nigeria. The aim of the study was to identify the preparedness of residents regarding fire disasters in residential buildings in Parakin, Ife Central Local Government Area of Osun State, Nigeria. To achieve the objectives, a quantitative study was carried out, primary data was sourced from structured, self-administered questionnaires. 80 buildings was purposively selected for the study. Affiliated literature was reviewed. Descriptive statistical tools such as frequency distribution and percentage was used in analysing the data. Chi-square tests at a significance level of 0.05 was done. SPSS version 23.0 was used in analysing all the data. Findings revealed that FDP is very low in the study area as respondents have very little or no firefighting facilities or gadgets, awareness, training about FDP. Chi-square tests revealed that there was no statistical significance between age of respondents and preparedness, ownership of home and preparedness, education and preparedness and sex and preparedness. It was established that preparedness for fire is very low. The study, however, recommended the provision of active and passive fire protection facilities in buildings, proper training of building users on FDP, enabling laws are also needed to promote the installation of fire protection, prevention, detection and suppression.
Highlights
Fire disaster preparedness (FDP) comprises pre-fire disaster actions and activities taken to prepare and respond to fire disasters in the built environment
FDP is an ongoing process of planning, organising, training, evaluating, equipping, exercising and improving methods and systems to sustain effective and efficient coordination, collaboration and enhancement of competence to respond to fire disasters. (Stikova, 2016; Agyekum, Ayarkwa and Opoku, 2017)
This study revealed that the highest cause of fire outbreaks in the study area was cooking appliances, this is different from what was obtainable in other parts of the country as Obasa, Mbamali and Okolie (2020a) and Anyanwu et al (2016) identified substandard and faulty electrical gadgets and appliances and electrical fire as the highest cause of fire outbreak
Summary
Fire disaster preparedness (FDP) comprises pre-fire disaster actions and activities taken to prepare and respond to fire disasters in the built environment. Studies have stressed how vital FDP is to the built environment and to the society at large (Nouban and Yunusa, 2020). This is because, economically, socially and environmentally, prevention and preparedness are far better and cheaper than response and recovery operations (Westcott, Ronan, Bambrick and Taylor, 2017). The need for proactive rather than retroactive actions in order to avert disasters in the built environment
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