The Federal Capital Territory Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has saved 4,880 lives and N99.3 million property in various disasters from January to date.

The acting Director-General of the agency, Mr Ibrahim Sabo, stated this during a media interactive session in Abuja on Tuesday.

He said the agency saved 1,842 lives from fire incidents, rescued 174 victims of building collapse, and 2,864 others from flood disaster across the FCT.

Sabo said that N99.3 million worth of property had been saved in fire outbreaks within the period under review.

“So far, only eight lives were lost to building collapse and flooding in the last nine months.

“Most of these lives lost during flooding were avoidable.

“In most of these flood-prone areas, we barricade and places a sign, warning people about the issue of flooding in that area while our vanguards are stationed there 24 hours.

“Our major responsibility is saving lives and property of the FCT residents, and we are getting full support from FCT Administration, which has been critical to achieving our mandate,” he said.

Sabo said that the FCT Minister, Mr Nyesom Wike had constituted a committee to ensure the prevention of fire incidents, adding that henceforth, anyone found culpable in any disaster would be charged to court.

According to him, those responsible for any form of disaster in the FCT, such as fire, flood or building collapse will no longer go scot-free, stressing that the response time to emergency has been reduce from five minutes to three minutes.

He added that FEMA has strengthen its partnership with sister agencies to effectively enhance emergency response.

“We have also been able to strengthen the capacity of our staff and equally trained our volunteers, vanguards, town criers and divers, who are the first respondents during emergencies,” he said.

On her part, Mrs Florence Wenegieme, Director, Forecasting, Response and Mitigation, urged residents to adhere to the agency’s warnings to avoid preventable death. (NAN)

Edited by Rabiu Sani-Ali