Though an Accountant, Economist, I’m Passionate about Fire Engineering

Though Jumade Adejola trained as an accountant and economist, he runs a fire engineering enterprise. Operating from a purpose-built office with plans to move to a new ultra-modern office and warehouse at the end of the year, Adejola has a client base that

Surveillant Nigeria Limited, keeps a low profile. Why? It has been a deliberate policy. But now, we want to be the number one fire protection company in Africa. We have opened offices in Ghana, Rwanda, Kenya and we have offices in Port-Harcourt, Abuja and our head office is in Lagos. Very soon, we will be moving to our ultra-modern new office complex because as you can see, this place can no longer contain us.

We wanted to get to certain level. Most of our clients know us and they know we can deliver at the shortest notice. Besides, we were not ready for the pressure that would come with too much noise. When we promise, we deliver even if it costs more than what we billed you. We believe in quality service and consistency. If we say three months, it will be three months. Our engineers are competent and they know their onions. And let me also add that I am not an office or arm-chair chief executive. I go to sites to supervise and take charge where necessary to deliver to the quality we promised the client. If you look at the issue of fire and its prevention and protection, it is a matter of life and death. So when people begin to use fake product, what you are protect is at risk. Look at insurance companies. They are supposed to involve us when planning their policies. It is not about paying premiums alone. We are supposed to be training their loss adjusters. It is about the risks involved and how are you going to really handle things when issues arise. Let me give you this example. You insure a building but proper fire protection equipment was not used. The whole building is at risk. And it is not proper equipment alone but approved one. Most of these products we see outside are refurbished products. If you use fire extinguisher that the cylinder is expired, because it is a compressed extinguisher, by the time open, it can injure your jaw and that is death. So what you are buying as safety equipment can also be risk equipment unknown to you. So you have to approach qualified companies that are doing the business.

But regulation is poor and this puts the works of professionals like you at risk. How do you deal with this?

Yes, regulation is poor. I am not disputing that but there is a building code now that has been passed to law and it is being pursued and being enforced. Most of the time, you will discover that if you don’t apply these rules, they won’t be enforced. That is at the federal level. In Lagos State, the state government is very committed to safety. We are consultants to the Lagos State Safety Commission and let me tell you that what they are doing is great. The state does not joke with lives of citizens and the state is even organising a conference on Vision Zero and this is about zero tolerance to fire, accidents and mishaps in any place. And that us why, in most of the construction sites, if you don’t take safety serious, the place will be shut down. We don’t take safety serious in this part of the world.

That is taken. We were at the Abuja airport one day and we alighted from the plane and we had to trek to the arrival lounge. That was unacceptable and that was risky. Countries don’t do that again. No matter the short distance, you don’t do that. In our company, our engineer are well trained when it comes to installations of fire detection system, fire fighting system and FM 200, which us fire suppression system for critical areas like server room of telecommunication companies or server room of banks and most of places that need protection. FM 200 puts out fire automatically either you are there or not.

Seems that is not common yet in ther.

It is here and people are already using it. We have banks and companies are using it. In fact, we have done it for a bank that all their equipments are protected. Guaranty Trust Bank is one of our major clients and they are doing well when it comes to the issue of protection. They don’t joke with it. We usually use them as reference and yardstick for other banks. I am not mentioning them because they are our clients but because of what they do. Union Bank too is doing well. As big as that building is, it is well protected. So many high-rise buildings in Lagos are now protected but many are still not.

And these are owned by multinationals?

Yes, they are and so many people are working in these offices. They are human beings too. If anything happens, what do you do? How do you evacuate them? And it even goes beyond this. We must also train your fire wardens to international standards. Each floor must have fire wardens. In case of emergency, they must be able to give instructions to the occupants of that floor on what to do. And that is why we encourage people that have high-rise buildings to have evacuation proceedings like public address system to tell people what to do in case of fire incident and the person operating that public address system must understand evacuation procedure. For instance, if there is fire on the eighth floor, he should be able to tell them to move to the ninth or tenth floor is the staircase is not yet on fire. The lift too must be connected to the fire detection system such that if there is an alarm, it automatically comes down to the ground floor so that everyone comes out. And the person operating the public address system must be able to give instructions on what to do to get to the muster point. This is why we are needed everywhere.

Look at the factories. They are the ones that need us most because they have the largest number of employees, especially the so called casual staff. They are many. They should have procedures. Let me use Olams Group as an example. They do fire drill for their staff all the time; either you are casual or regular staff.

There is what we call means of egress. In some buildings, even your so-called high-rise buildings, the means of egress is very poor right from the design. How