By Olatunde Odebiyi
Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu on Wednesday stated that integrity tests would be conducted on buildings around Balogun market affected by fire on Tuesday.
He said the government would support business owners who lost goods in the inferno.
He spoke at the scene of the incident on Wednesday on Martins Street in Lagos Island, where Brassas Plaza and Radio House were gutted fire on Tuesday.
The Nation learnt that a policeman was killed in the building which collapsed on Tuesday following the fire.
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It was also learnt that the fire broke out yesterday at Radio House around 6:30 am, destroying goods including shoes, clothes and bags on the 4th and 6th floors of the six-story building. Traders were seen packing out their wares from the adjoining buildings.
The governor said, “All respondents are on site, even though getting here was a bit challenging but they were able to find their way in on time. As you can see the building has all sorts of commercial activities; merchandising and fabrics were destroyed. We do not know the real cause of the fire yet because the building is still a live site so, we all need to be careful.
All of our men, emergency respondents, the fire service from both the Lagos State government and the federal fire service as well as private fire service including Julius Berger, Nigerian Port Authority and all others have come to support in the rescue mission.
“People’s means of livelihood have been destroyed. The government will do an enumeration and see how we can support the families and the businesses that have been affected.”
“The building is completely distressed and it is completely burnt. What is to be done now is to start a gradual clearing of the building which in itself is a difficult exercise because they will be dealing with concrete, steel and iron. My advice is that people should move away and allow the operators, the respondents and all of our men to do their work well.
“The second issue is that because these buildings are clustered together, we will do full integrity test on both the building on the right and left sides after full evacuation.
The integrity test is to ascertain the level of integrity of the adjoining buildings to ascertain if they are fit for business and for habitation.”
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