Saturday, November 08, 2008

FIRE needs fuel to spread and rubbish is fuel. This year, the National Fire National Fire Authority is one of many organisations that have signed up for the Clean Up Fiji campaign.

NFA chief fire officer Mark Reid said rubbish contributed to many of the fires they attended to and good housekeeping was the best way to decrease such incidents.

"In principle, we support the Clean Up Fiji campaign and, as citizens, we would like to see the country clean," he said

"For fire safety reasons, the campaign is good because rubbish is often left around and burnt and a lot of the time this rubbish contributes to fire.

"I hope the campaign will flow on to shops and other commercial premises where they might have containers and boxes that are left outside.

"These are often burnt and the fire could run up the back wall and into the building and before you know it could be on fire."

Mr Reid said getting rid of rubbish and general housekeeping could reduce damaging fire.

"Rubbish close to the buildings contribute to buildings being burnt down," he said.

"Fire needs fuel to burn and if there is any fuel around it will increase intensity and not just spread the fire.

"The less fuel there is the less fire."

Mr Reid said he would write to the 16 station officers to get on board and support the Clean Up Fiji campaign.

"We keep our fire stations clean and tidy," he said. "We need to set examples to other businesses and get rid of all rubbish."

Article reproduced courtesy of Fiji Times Online - http://www.fijitimes.com/story.aspx?id=105545