The Management of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria has noted with concern the wrong impression being created by some critics in the media about the adequacy of fire cover at our airports, following the recent fire incident at the Kaduna Airports Control Tower.
The Authority hereby wishes to state first, that the Kaduna Airport’s control tower was not razed down by the fire as most news reports alleged but that only the cabin of the control tower was affected, as the attached photograph shows. On the contrary it was the quick intervention of our firemen that prevented the old prefabricated control tower from being razed down completely.
Secondly, every airport in the country including Kaduna Airport, now has adequate fire cover in line with the recommendations of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) for its prescribed fire cover category. This includes the prescribed number of fire tenders, firemen and related safety facilities. The Kaduna Airport has Category 7 fire cover status and meets all the ICAO requirements to operate under that category, including manpower, fire tenders and requisite fire equipment.
Between 2012 and 2013, the number of serviceable fire hydrant systems at our airports has been increased from two to seven, with work in progress at 11 more hydrant systems, while all the airports have received additional modern fire tenders. New firemen have also been recruited, trained and redeployed to airports, according to their manpower needs, in line with ICAO recommendations.
This is aside from the retraining of all firemen, both locally and abroad, to sharpen their fire fighting skills, in line with current international standards and practices.
