An expert in Electrical and Water Engineering, Mr Mike Ukaegbu has blamed the rising cases of fire outbreak on buildings across the federation on clients who prefer to patronize the services of quacks in the industry for the wiring of their buildings.
Ukaegbu who made the assertion in an interview with Viewpoint Housing News in Abuja, noted that clients do not employ the services of professionals to wire their homes due to alleged high charges by professionals.
According to him, “Most clients in Nigeria prefer to employ the services of artisan electricians to wire their houses because they feel that professional are expensive to hire but what these clients do not understand is that electricians who are artisans oftentimes do not know the right specification for a particular building especially the number of wires that should be used. Their concern is to have electricity in a building.
“For instance, when the right cables and switch gears are not used, there is bound to be heating and explosion which would eventually lead to a fire outbreak in the building.”
He lamented that artisans use under sized cables when not supervised by engineers. This leads to load failure in the building.
“When the right wires are not used, the tendency is fire outbreaks,” he stated.
The expert noted that Standards Organization of Nigeria (SON) is not doing enough in their regulatory duty due to poor manpower especially in the area of being visible at construction sites to inspect materials that are in use.
He said, “Take for instance, there are constructions that could be going on without the notice of SON…”
Speaking on the difference between and artisan who is a skilled worker on site and the engineer, he said the engineer ensures that the right sizes of cables and switch gears are installed by the artisan given the specification of the building.
Load has to be calculated to know what current a building should carry because when the load is too much on the cable, there is going to be and explosion, he explained.
While the artisan is concerned with the practical aspect of wiring a building, he does not know the principles and calculations required for wiring.
“Sizes of cables and switch gears are the major causes of fire outbreaks in buildings in the country,” he stressed.
