Lagos records 1,135 fire calls in nine months as service warns on prevention, false alarms
Lagos State Fire and Rescue Service recorded 1,135 fire calls in the first nine months of 2026, as the agency warned residents to strengthen prevention measures and stop making false emergency calls that could delay responses to genuine incidents.
The fire calls formed the bulk of 1,324 emergency incidents handled by the service between January and September.
Other incidents included 79 rescue calls, 100 salvage operations, nine collapsed-building incidents and one gas-related explosion.
The figures provide a broader picture of the emergency workload confronting responders across Lagos and sharpen the public-safety question as the state moves into a period when authorities say fire risk can increase.
Fire calls make up about 86% of incidents
Fire calls accounted for about 86% of the 1,324 incidents recorded during the nine-month period.
January recorded the highest overall number of incidents, with 203, followed by March with 201.
September recorded the lowest total, with 94 incidents.
For fire calls specifically, March recorded the highest number at 176, followed by January with 173.
September recorded the lowest number of fire calls, at 80.
The figures show that fires made up the largest category of emergency response handled by the agency.
They do not, on their own, establish why individual fires occurred or whether there has been a failure by emergency authorities.
210 rescued, 65 suspected fatalities recovered
The Fire and Rescue Service said 210 people were rescued alive during emergency operations between January and September.
It also reported recovering 65 suspected fatalities during those operations.
That distinction is important.
The 65 suspected fatalities were recorded across the agency’s emergency operations and should not be described as 65 deaths from fire unless a more detailed official breakdown establishes that link.
The report covers fires alongside rescue operations, building collapses, salvage work and a gas-related explosion.
Agency estimates ₦13.24bn in losses
The service estimated that property worth ₦79.44 billion was protected during emergency operations over the period.
It put estimated losses from fire and other emergencies at ₦13.24 billion.
Those figures are agency estimates rather than independently audited valuations.
They nevertheless illustrate the scale of property and economic exposure associated with emergencies in Lagos.
False calls raise response concern
The service recorded 341 false emergency calls between January and September.
It warned that false calls can delay firefighters responding to genuine emergencies and place lives and property at risk.
For an emergency system operating across a city as large as Lagos, unnecessary deployments can tie up personnel and equipment that may be needed elsewhere.
The report does not establish that a particular death, injury or property loss resulted from a false call.
But the volume has prompted the service to treat misuse of emergency lines as a public-safety concern.
Prevention takes focus as dry season approaches
Controller-General of the Lagos State Fire and Rescue Service Margaret Adeseye urged residents, businesses and institutions to strengthen fire-prevention practices.
The service advised people to avoid indiscriminate burning, handle and store flammable materials carefully and switch off electrical appliances when they are not in use.
Residents were also urged not to overload electrical sockets, to maintain functional fire extinguishers and to keep escape routes and access points unobstructed.
The agency further called for emergencies to be reported promptly and for members of the public to cooperate with responders at incident scenes.
These are prevention recommendations from the service. They should not be interpreted as evidence that any one of those behaviours caused a particular fire recorded during the period.
What the numbers do — and do not — show
The January-to-September report establishes a heavy emergency-response workload dominated by fire calls.
It also establishes that hundreds of people were rescued, that suspected fatalities were recovered across emergency operations and that the agency places the value of property exposed to emergencies in the tens of billions of naira.
What the report does not establish is a single common cause for the fires, a systemic failure of the emergency service or negligence by any particular institution.
Those questions would require incident-level investigation, response records, building-safety evidence and enforcement data.
The accountability test
The immediate accountability issue is whether Lagos can reduce preventable incidents while ensuring that emergency resources remain available when genuine crises occur.
That includes compliance with fire-safety standards, functioning extinguishers, clear escape routes, safe handling of flammable materials, responsible use of emergency numbers and timely reporting.
For the Fire and Rescue Service, the accountability question is how incident data informs prevention, enforcement and response.
For residents and businesses, the agency’s message is that fire safety cannot begin only after an alarm is raised.
As Lagos enters the dry-season period, the service says prevention remains the most effective way to reduce the human and economic cost of emergencies.