A total of 1, 621 cases of fire incidents were recorded in Lagos State between January and December, 2014, according the Director of the State Fire Service, Mr Rasak Fadipe.

Compared to the same period in 2013 with a record of 2,005, it is believed that the sensitisation efforts of the agency yielded some results.

Fadipe who gave details of the parastatal’s activities in the year on saturday, said the record spanned January to December 21, 2014.

He added that the highest cases of 172 incidents were recorded in March and that the month with the lowest cases of fire incidents was October which recorded 94 incidents.

However, he noted that the statistics represent only the number of cases that were reported to the agency.

He said the Fire Service responded to 108 rescue calls while nine collapsed building calls were also recorded. He also said that the agency received 275 false calls during this period.

Fadipe also advised members of the public to avoid any act that could cause fire outbreak, especially candle light, generating set, power surge and over loading electrical appliances. He further said one Sodiq Ojomo, working with a catering service, drowned in a swimming pool at an event centre in Lagos on Christmas day.

Fadipe said that the incident occurred at No. 3/5, Durosinmi Etti Street, Victoria Island, adding that the 23 year-old man was at the centre with his colleagues to entertain some guests with food when he jumped into swimming pool.

He said the corpse has been deposited in a mortuary.