Early morning fire razes building at Agege, destroys property

Property worth millions of naira were yesterday lost to an early morning fire at No. 5. Olugbosho Street, Agege area of Lagos State. There was pandemonium as smoke suddenly covered the air from the compound made up of residential building and a church, Saints Assembly Church.

The fire with billowing smoke were coming from some of the rooms, which made it difficult for neighbours who wanted to render assistance to stop the fire as they kept beating a retreat with the raging inferno.

The hearts of the owners of buildings on either side jumped up their chest into their mouths as they helplessly watched the smoke go up into the sky while the fire kept spreading.

The situation was also not helped by the fact that most occupants of the building had left for work while the owner of a provision shop in the building who was around was not living there and had limited access to other parts of the building.

Prior to the arrival of fire servicemen, some of the bold sympathisers that besieged the scene dared took the risk to put out the fire though with little success.

After a while, reinforcement came from the Lagos Fire Service. A young man who pleaded for anonymity said no one could identify the cause of the fire, which many suspect could have been from a lit stove that was not put off.

Meanwhile, six temporary shops were burnt down at Kofar Ruwa Market (Kasuwar ‘Yan Rodi) in Kano on Sunday night as fire fighters battled to curtail its spread. The Public Relations Officer of the State Fire Service, Malam Saidu Mohammed, told newmen in Kano on Monday that six shops were affected by the fire incident, which source was yet to be identified.

He said a distress call from one Usman Danladi was received at about 10:10p.m. saying that there was fire outbreak at the market. He said: “On receiving the information, we quickly sent some of our personnel and fire fighting vehicle to the scene of the incident at about 10:15 pm to stop the fire from spreading to other shops.”

He however said that there were no casualties, but that property yet to be estimated were lost to the fire outbreak. He advised traders to be more careful and desist from using instruments capable of triggering fire as a way of guarding against future occurrence.

Mohammed also advised residents to keep fire buckets, blankets and extinguishers at home to enable them curtail fire outbreak before calling on the fire service. He said the cause of the fire was still unknown but that an investigation has began.