Risk and Vulnerability of Markets to Fire Incidents in Port Harcourt Metropolis Rivers State, Nigeria

^*Elenwo E.I., ^**Elenwo O.P., and Dollah O.C.^*

^*Department of Geography and Environmental Management, Faculty of social Science, University of Port Harcourt,P.M.B.5323, Choba, Rivers State, Nigeria.

^*Department of Physics, Faculty of Sciences, University of Port Harcourt P.M.B.5323, Choba, RiversState, Nigeria.

Accepted February 10, 2019

Fire safety awareness is the ability to recognize the danger of fire, ability to know what to do to prevent a fire as well as what action to take when it occurs. This paper examined the risk and vulnerability of markets to fire incidents in Port Harcourt Metropolis. The cross sectional research method was adopted. Markets in the Metropolis were listed and a random sample technique applied to select six of the markets with an estimated population of traders. Taro Yamane technique was applied to get the sample size. A total number of 382 traders were interviewed in the sampled markets. Primary and secondary sources of data were utilized and key informant data was analysed using discreet statistics and presented in tables and charts. The results showed that fire occurrence could be stopped through fire safety awareness by traders. The risk of fire outbreak was higher in the dry season, the harmattan season. The harmattan season starts between November and March, and comes with dust and mist. This study revealed that it was scary to note that fire incidents recorded in quick succession in Rivers State particularly in the dry season from 2013 to 2018 was alarming. The way out of the situation was the installation of water sprinklers and hydrants at strategic areas of the markets for easy supply of water during fire outbreaks and adequate safety awareness adopted by the traders on handling electrical equipment, storage of chemicals and flammable substances.

Key words: Risk, Vulnerability, Markets, Fire-Incidents, Port Harcourt.

Full Text PDF(862 KB)