The FCT Fire Service says three of it firefighters sustained varying degrees of injuries in the Thursday night fire incident at the AYM Shafa filling station, Abuja.

The service Public Relations Officer, Ibrahim Muhammad, confirmed the development to the News Agency of Nigeria Abuja on Friday.

Mohammad said that the filling station located at Area 3 Garki, was engulfed with fire after a fuel tanker filled with petrol earlier exploded.

According to him, the service got information about the incident at about 9.44pm, and immediately mobilised personnel and appliances to the scene.

“Owing to the magnitude of the incident, other fire service authorities also joined the emergency response, resulting in a coordinated inter-agency firefighting operation.

“In the course of controlling and putting the fire off, three of our fire fighters were grossly injured, with one currently receiving intensive medical care at the Trauma Centre of National Hospital, Abuja.

“Medical specialists are making effort to ensure his recovery, while the other two were rushed to Alliance hospital, Area 11, Garki, Abuja and are receiving medical treatment.”

He added that the cause of the fire remained under investigation.

“Members of the public are advised to refrain from speculation and await the outcome of the official investigation,” he said.

He also said that the service appreciated the cooperation of sister emergency agencies, security personnel and members of the public who assisted in ensuring a coordinated emergency response.

He further said that the FCT fire service commended the dedication, professionalism and bravery displayed by all responding fire fighters and emergency personnel.

According to him, their prompt intervention prevented what could have resulted in an even greater disaster.

Muhammad however said that preliminary assessment revealed that the fire affected the filling station premises and adjoining structures.

“One fuel tanker loaded with approximately 45,000 litres of petroleum product was engulfed by the fire.

“Preliminary damage assessment reveals that 13 fuel dispensing pumps were within the affected facility.

“Three fuel dispensers were directly affected by the fire, while two civilian vehicles were completely burnt.

“Parts of the Federal Revenue Service (FRS) office and sections of Ahmad Plaza, a two-storey commercial building beside the station were affected by the incident,” the PRO said.

He urged operators of fuel stations, commercial facilities and members of the public to strictly comply with fire safety regulations.

Muhammad said it was imperative to ensure regular maintenance of fire protection systems and report any fire emergency immediately through the appropriate emergency channels 020-9290-6118.

He quoted the Director of the FCT fire service, Adebayo Zacchaeus, as expressing concern for the injured fire fighters and calling on members of the public to keep them in their prayers as they continue receiving treatments.

Zacchaeus said that the service remained steadfast in its commitment to protecting lives and property through prompt emergency response, public education and the enforcement of fire safety standards.

NAN reports that the emergency operation was personally supervised by the Federal Fire Service Controller General, Olumode Samuel, FCT Fire Service Director, alongside other tactical and rescue operators.

(NAN)

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President Bola Tinubu on Thursday received the outgoing President of the ECOWAS Commission, Dr Omar Touray, at the State House, Abuja.

According to photographs released by the State House media office, Touray visited the Presidential Villa in the company of the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Sola Enikanolaiye.

Although details of the closed-door meeting were not immediately made public, Thursday’s meeting came weeks before the Gambian diplomat formally hands over the leadership of the executive arm of the regional bloc.

A career diplomat, Touray assumed office as President of the ECOWAS Commission on July 3, 2022, following his unanimous nomination by the Government of The Gambia and endorsement by the ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government for the 2022–2026 term.

He succeeded Ivorian diplomat Jean-Claude Kassi Brou, who led the Commission from 2018.

Before his appointment at ECOWAS, Touray served as The Gambia’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations and later as Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs under former President Yahya Jammeh, a position from which he was dismissed in September 2009.

He subsequently worked with the Islamic Development Bank before returning to diplomatic service.

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Zigzagging between robots, weapons and computers in his garage workshop, Ukrainian engineer Eduard Trotsenko was bubbling with excitement as he showed off his latest prototypes and dreamed of sci-fi-inspired futuristic ideas.

Top of his ideas list are “mechanical birds” that can land on high-voltage power lines and recharge themselves, and “robot dogs” that can be sent into battle.

“In order to save human lives, to save soldiers, there must be robots,” Trotsenko told AFP.

Autonomous weapons have come to dominate the war with Russia.

Aerial drones are used on the front lines for reconnaissance and to drop explosives, while down below ground robots support logistics operations.

Ukraine has built a sprawling drone industry from scratch, hailed by President Volodymyr Zelensky as the best in the world.

But the dismissal last month of popular defence minister Mykhailo Fedorov — one of the most ardent backers of drones — raised some concerns over the future of the sector.

“I don’t understand why they sacked Fedorov,” Trotsenko, the founder and CEO of robot manufacturer Temerland, said.

Despite his removal, industry players and military personnel AFP spoke to said there was no going back now.

“The young people there won’t let it go. There’ll definitely be drones,” Trotsenko said.

When Russia invaded, 55-year-old Trotsenko — who was born in Soviet Kazakhstan — switched from making car charging stations to military robots.

His speciality is ground drones: autonomous vehicles that crawl the “kill zone” — the kilometres-deep stretch of territory where Russian and Ukrainian drones lurk in the skies, posing a constant danger to anybody below.

For now, they mainly help evacuate wounded soldiers from the battlefield or ferry supplies — reducing the need to send more men into the kill zone.

But Trotsenko is looking at combat prototypes: one equipped with an RPG rocket launcher, the other with a heavy machine gun, controlled by onboard artificial intelligence (AI).

“They’re currently being tested in some brigades,” said Trotsenko, who is awaiting a green light for further rollout by the General Staff.

Fedorov had been crucial to pushing the technological shift within Ukraine’s army.

He created the Defence AI Center A1 — a hub dedicated to embedding AI in the military and using live feedback from the front to speed up the deployment of new technology.

Fedorov also pushed to bring private companies into the military system, putting competition at the heart of the army’s innovation.

“In a private company, you can take risks more quickly,” said Trotsenko, explaining how small companies were incentivised to modify and adapt at speed to win contracts.

Hundreds of kilometres away, a 45-year-old military commander who goes by the call sign “Jason”, was just back from a mission.

He heads a unit that operates the kind of ground drones that Trotsenko develops in his garage.

“You can afford to lose a drone, but not a person. The probability of human losses there is reduced,” he told AFP.

That kind of mantra — using drones to save lives — was precisely what Fedorov had been pushing at the defence ministry.

After he was sacked, protestors forced out the Soviet-style commander-in-chief, Oleksandr Syrsky, who had clashed with Fedorov’s reform drive — criticising him for not embracing drones and being too careless with soldiers’ lives.

Asked whether Fedorov’s removal could upset Ukraine’s drone development, Jason brushes it off.

“It’s not that simple … the technological initiative was not flowing from the top down. It wasn’t a government order,” he said.

After Russia invaded, “there was an explosion of bottom-up initiative”.

Young engineers began to create new products, showed them to the military, who took what they wanted and then started their own development, he said.

Now, programmers, telecoms specialists and engineers are fully integrated into the army.

Jason said “the shortage of professionally trained people” is the biggest challenge he faces.

Back in Trotsenko’s workshop, his engineers are already working to redefine the technological and geographical limits of war.

On a whiteboard, he sketched out his vision of the future: conflicts fought by “humanoid robots”, controlled by operators in another country, or wounded soldiers lying in hospital beds.

“Things have really taken off,” he said confidently.

AFP

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