Fire Hazards
in Properties
Monday
Over recent weeks
I have heard and witnessed incidences of fires destroying homes, in one of the
incidents almost all the family members died. All these incidents were due to
either illegal wiring or power surges causing sockets to catch fire. I have
written in a past article about taking precautions not to overload sockets with
adaptors or very powerful electrical equipment. We are all guilty of going out
and leaving our sockets on with all our appliances plugged in. We leave our
televisions on standby and even the air-conditioner is remotely operated,
meaning it is never fully switched off
One of the fires
was started from an air-conditioner socket which was remotely switched
off. Unfortunately the owners were at
work, so the fire had time to climb up the curtains, to the beds and spread
over the whole house. What was not damaged by the fire was smoke damaged.
Neighbours who were at home could only watch in horror as the fire shattered
windows and spread more and more. No one could gain entry through the fire
doors or burglary bars. It took the resident being called at work, and getting
to the house almost an hour and a half later, before any attempt could be made
to stop the fire.
Tuesday
Still on the
topic of fires in properties, It is wise that homes are fitted with smoke
alarms, so that if a fire starts at night, you can be woken up by hearing the
alarm. As we all know, smoke is a silent killer and does not wake you up. You
inhale the smoke and die in your sleep, simple as that! It is frightening, but
simple measures like, having a fire extinguisher or fire blanket in the house,
so that you can put out a fire immediately it starts and prevent it from
spreading.
Wednesday
There was a round
table meeting in Abuja recently on Mortgage Financing in Nigeria, and the
findings from the meeting were that approvals for mortgage financing in our
country was the lowest on the African continent!! This of course is no surprise
despite the growth property market. Figures show that the rate of borrowing in
South Africa was 30%, Namibia 20% and Nigeria 4%
Thursday
I saw on the news
that the Lagos State Government is taking steps to remove all illegal shanty
dwelling in the state and in return provide low cost housing for displaced
individuals. I certainly hope that the low cost housing is put in place before
the demolition commences.
What was amazing
and amusing was that In the process of removing one of the illegal shanties, an
illegal oil refinery yard was discovered in the heart of Apapa. What was even
more amazing, was how huge and well stocked this yard was, all surrounded by
wooden fences and a padlocked wooden gate. Suffice to say, all necessary oil
and investigative agencies will be brought out into the public domain in
another round of enquiry panels, which may or may not yield answers as to how
this was all funded and supplied!
Friday
We are still
awaiting rains that will clear away this unbearable heat for a few weeks. Heavy
rainfalls were predicted over a month ago, which everyone prepared for and even
looked forward to, yet apart from the odd couple of hours rainfall, nothing has
manifested.
For those of us
who have to be out on the road for our daily bread, visiting sites and taking
clients on visits, it is a nightmare conducting visits between the hours of
10am – 4pm when the sun is scorching. I have had to reschedule many viewing on
clients requests (thankfully) due to the extreme heat. We shall continue to pray that the rains
start soon.
Until next week!
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