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From Isaac Anumihe, Abuja
The Federal Fire Service (FFS) has said that it saved 2,106 lives and N934.70 billion worth of property from different fire incidents across Nigeria in 2025.
In a report, the FFS Deputy Controller-General, Ijeoma Achi-Okidi, in charge of Policy, Planning, Research and Statistics, gave the statistics in Abuja.
According to the report, in the year under review, FFS recorded 1,866 fire incidents, from which 114 lives were lost, while 198 citizens and five firefighters were injured.
“The total estimated property loss was approximately N74.75 billion, which indicates that FFS successfully protected about 92.59 per cent of the total value at risk.
“The overall fatality rate was 61.09 deaths per 1,000 fire incidents, highlighting the significant human impact despite effective property protection,” the statistics stated.
A breakdown of fire outbreaks according to premises type indicated that private residences had the highest number of fires with 693, followed by public buildings and government offices with 444 fire incidents.
“Markets and trading centres recorded 190 fires, vehicles/automobiles 177 fires, while other types of premises were 105.
“Thirty-nine persons died from markets and trading centres fire, 22 persons due to automobile fires, 18 persons in public/government offices fire, 10 deaths due to banks fire, while 10 persons died from other fires.
“Deaths from markets inferno was responsible for over a third of all fatalities, likely due to high occupancy and rapid fire spread in crowded trading environments,” the report read.
The report further revealed that market fires led to the loss of N22.27 billion, followed by private residences: N14.67 billion, public/government buildings: N11 billion, educational institutions: N8.16 billion and fuel/gas stations: N4.92 billion.
It also indicated that in 2025, the leading causes of fire incidents were electrical-related issues such as power surge/overload and wiring faults, causing nearly 70 per cent of all fires recorded in the year.
In addition, the report stated that, though gas explosion fires did not occur as much as other sources of ignition, they had the highest fatality rate per incident.
Meanwhile, the FFS Controller-General (CG), Samuel Olumode, acknowledged that in the year under review, the service achieved significant life-saving and asset protection outcomes.
Olumode, however, said that the service will continue to intensify efforts in ensuring the safety of lives and property.
He assured that plans are ongoing to strengthen preventive regulations, public awareness, and forensic fire investigation capacity, adding that infrastructure safety will be critical in reducing fires, fatalities and economic losses.
The CG urged Nigerians to co-operate with firefighters at fire scenes for effective fire control and tackling.
“Prevention is better than reaction and that is why the service has begun sensitisation programmes and training of personnel in order to serve Nigerians better,” Olumode said.
