Abuja — The Federal Fire Service yesterday blamed lack of funds for its inability to establish fire stations in satellite towns of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

Head of department, FCT Fire Service, Mr Ibrahim Liman, told News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja that "for now there is no fund to operate fire stations in the satellite towns".

Liman, however, said plans were underway to have fire service stations in the Area Council headquarters.

He said there were eight fire stations that cover the territory, three of which were for Asokoro, Nyanya and Karu.

"Mabushi fire station covers Kubwa, Dei-Dei and Karmo axis, while Games village fire station covers Durumi, Lugbe axis and these stations are functional", he added.

He explained that the Service has a system that runs 24 hours shift duty while in the Bwari area council fire station, there were two functional fire fighting vehicles.

"In Gwagwalada, we also have men on ground with two vehicles, while in Kuje and Abaji, we have our men there and one fire fighting vehicle each and they all run 24 hours shift duty.

"We have covered the entire Territory and we have fourteen functional fire fighting vehicles", he added.

He urged Nigerians to always come out when fire lectures and demonstrations are organised because they would help them during fire outbreak.

"Even after writing them, they will just ignore our men and will not attend to them and when there is a fire they start calling us, " he said.

He said the essence of the lecture, inspection and demonstration was to tell people what to do in case of fire outbreak and the causes of fire disaster.

"This is a season for fire outbreaks because of harmattan. It is hot, windy, dry and these are ingredients required for fast combustion which can lead to fire outbreak.

"The public does not notify us on time for us to know that there is a fire outbreak", Liman added.

He appealed to the public to always call at the nearest fire station during emergency, adding that fees were not required to fight fire.