By Goodluck Ikiebe.
The Liberian Fire Service Chief, Colonel Alex Dickson, has visited the headquarters of the Federal Fire Service.
The Fire Service Chief, who was in Nigeria to seek collaboration with the Nigerian Federal Fire Service commended the effort of the Nigerian Government in repositioning the Federal Fire Service.
Col. Dickson, who was received by the Controller General, Dr. Liman Alhaji Ibrahim, at the Service headquarter, conducted him round to see the infrastructures and facilities of the Service, expressed satisfaction in what he saw.
The visiting Liberian Fire Chief expressed his delight and also appealed for support from the Federal Fire Service in the areas of capacity building.
Col. Dickson said, “Liberian as a country still recovering from its past civil unrest, has a lot to learn from Nigeria on repositioning of its Fire Department especially with regards to administrative structure and rapid transformation seeing how the Federal Fire within a short period of time has been able to transform from a moribund Fire Service to one of the best in Africa.
Dr. Liman, while responding told the visiting Fire Chief that between 2015 till date, Fire Service has moved from a Service with just 3 fire fighting trucks to a Service having over 150 state – of- the – art modern firefighting trucks at the moment.
“The Service has also increased its staff strength to over 5,000 firefighters, manning fire stations across the country. A feat which was achieved by the determination of the present leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari” the CG said.
The Controller General also disclosed that the Service has developed a template for a robust capacity building for its Officers and Men that has made it possible for frequent training of firefighters locally and internationally.
Also, the CG while expressing his appreciation for the visit of Col. Dickson told him that Nigeria is willing to provide the necessary support required to revamp the Liberian Fire Service, a collaboration, he said will be achieved through its parent ministry, the Federal Ministry of Interior in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
