Causes of Fire Outbreaks at Onitsha Markets in Anambra State: Proffering Architectural and Other Safety Measures Against Their Repetitions in Nigeria

Abstract

Frequent fire outbreaks in market places in Nigeria, particularly in Anambra State is a problem that has been significantly rated high; they have caused injuries, loss of lives, goods and properties. To curtail this problem, a research was conducted on the three major markets in Onitsha in Anambra State with the aim of assessing the causes of fire in the markets, in order to proffer architectural and other safety measures against their repetitions in Nigeria. The research employed desktop study as the instrument for data collection. Hence, the data were analysed and checked via contents analysis technique, in order to validate the results. The findings showed that the known and suspected causes of fire outbreak are: epileptic power supply, power surge, cooking gas cylinders, faulty electrical connections, sparks from electricity outlet, sparks from electricity generating set, standby loaded lorry, stationary tanker laden with fuel and fire usually start in the markets at night or early hours of the morning when there are no traders. Among the recommended safety measures are: materials of every part of buildings around the electricity outlets must be resistant to fire, in order to disallow possible ignition that may be caused by epileptic power supply, power surge and sparks; materials of every part of restaurant and shop buildings where there will be use of cooking gas cylinder must be resistant to fire, so as to disallow possible ignition that may be caused by it; every market must have a designed fire resistant electricity generator house to stop fire that may start from the electricity generating set due to sparks, and stationary tanker laden with fuel must be banned in the markets because of the flammability of fuel.