GIS Based Fire Incident Emergency Response: A Case Study of Kano Urban Markets, Kano State, Nigeria

Abstract

Fire, a terrific type of disaster, can destroy properties and lives which in turn brings about physical, social, structural, economic and welfare disturbances in a community. Market fire is not an exception of such destruction. The aim of this research is to assess the markets’ fire emergency response with a view to optimize the use of road network for quick response to the incident in the study area. This study explored geospatial techniques and Crimestat software to develop Journey-to-Incident model for ascertaining the distance fire fighters cover for responding to the market fire incident in the metropolitan Kano vis-à-vis the international standard of 3 min, for markets fire emergency responses, to reduce the damages to properties. The study revealed that the markets are located along the major routes and this makes them accessible to responders from different directions and this enables assessing the proximity to the nearest fire fighter’s stations using GIS network analysis. The study compared the modelling of the responses of some of the urban markets and the network analysis responses time, which gave the condition that there are impediments of traffic lights and some blockages along the roads, taken into cognizance the speed limits. The variation between the documented and network analysis response travel times for Bachirawa (Wood Sellers) market was higher. This was because the barricade mounted presently along the Katsina road divide, does not allow crossing the road. As such, fire fighting vehicle had to travel for 6 min to make a turn at Kofar Ruwa junctions. In conclusion, the GIS technique has proven to be an effective tool for better understanding of spatial events like fire incident in relation to location of the facility to respond to such inferno by considering the underlying route impediments hindering quickest response should be integrated into emergency management plan for fire incident, especially in the identified markets and other areas to meet the international standard.

Keywords: GIS, fire, urban market, disaster, emergency response