NFA Chief Executive Puamau Sowane

The National Fire Authority will be building sub-stations in major centres around the country.

Chief Executive Puamau Sowane says this is a targeted initiative to improve response time in the event of a fire.

Sowane admits that currently, when attending to fires, it is mostly to extinguish the blaze.

He says there has been an increase in structural fires since last year, with 131 incidents.

The CEO says in 2018, the number of structural fires reached 140.

While incidents have dropped in the following years, last year saw an unexpected rise.

Puamau says building new stations is an expensive exercise, costing more than a million dollars, which is why the NFA is considering sub-stations.

He says that at this stage, some land has already been acquired.

Meanwhile, Sowane says the NFA is building a new fire station in Navua.