The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Fire incidents

  • How I lost my N20m house, three shops, N11m goods to fire incidents – Ibadan business woman

    How I lost my N20m house, three shops, N11m goods to fire incidents – Ibadan business woman

    A business woman, Mrs Rabiatu Kingsley, yesterday narrated how she lost goods worth more than N11 million to fire incidents that consumed her house and three shops at Police Barracks, Omolewa, Yemetu, Ibadan

    Rabiatu, who looked lost, was held tight by her children who were looking for where help would come from when our correspondent visited the scene of the fire incident.

    Apparently giving up hope, she recalled how a fire incident also ravaged her private resident around the Yemetu Police Station and she had to start squatting in a self-contained apartment since the incident occurred late last year.

    For her, it was a tale of double tragedy in quick succession

    Rabiatu, wife of a police officer, runs three of the 15 shops destroyed by a midnight fire.

    When The Nation visited the scene, it was observed that the fire had been put out completely by the combined effort of the state fire service men and residents who lived in the area.

    She, however, lamented that goods worth more than N11 million were destroyed in the inferno, making a particular mention of a tailor who had just procured an expensive sewing machine worth more than N7 million.

    The tailor, it was gathered, had slept at the shop, working all night to deliver some jobs but could not save anything when the fire engulfed the shop. Rabiatu said it was sheer grace that saved him from being consumed by the fire.

    Read Also: Fire guts three-storey building in Onitsha

    Sources said the tailor, who was locked inside the shop, was unaware of the fire outbreak while other residents were also not aware that he was sleeping inside the shop until noise from rescue operation jolted him to life.

    The tailor was said to have been nearly suffocated in the shop but for the rescue operations of neighbours who quickly dragged him out.

    Witnesses said the fire was caused by an electrical spark from a nearby electrical pole.

    But authorities said the fire incident was a result of a deep freezer that caught fire and set the place ablaze.

    While the shop owners were unable to save anything from the incident, the scene had become a harvest field for scavengers and scrap dealers by the afternoon.

    They were sighted at the scene trying to source items that were of economic benefits to them.

    Speaking with The Nation, Rashidat said the best she got from her association, the Police Officers Wives Association (POWA) when her house got burnt was a mattress.

    She said she was only looking up to God and not any human for help.

    She said: “My building caught fire last year. I have lost more than N11 million.

    “I sell new shoes, school bags, handbags, shreds, needles, ladies’ shoes and a lot of other things.

    My shop is full of stuffs —provision, salt, minerals, fish, stock fish, curry and ingredients.

    “That one (pointing at another shop), there are two deep freezers and this long freezer. All the three shops were full of different goods and items that I sell.”

  • Six die in fire incidents in Nasarawa

    Six die in fire incidents in Nasarawa

    The Chief Fire Officer of Nasarawa State, Alhaji Dogara Dalhatu, said on Friday that six persons lost their lives in the fire incidents that occurred in the state from January to date.

    Dalhatu who disclosed this to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lafia said that property worth N82 million was lost during the incidents.

    He said that the state Fire Service saved property worth N5 million in the fires that broke out in the state within the period.

    According to Dalhatu, the service received 89 distress calls 78 of which were for fire outbreaks while 10 were for rescue from wells and open water.

    Read: Woman arrested for killing baby in Nasarawa

    “Reporting time is very critical in a fire incident situation. Those affected who reported on time saw the efforts put in by our fire fighters,” he said.

    He also appealed to the residents to be conscious of fire and have first aid boxes and fire fighting equipments such fire extinguishers and smoke detectors in their residences.

    The chief fire officer noted that in case of any breakout, the equipment would enable them to quench the fire or mitigate its effect before the arrival of fire fighters.

    Dalhatu appealed to the state government to provide the service with modern equipment and training to enhance its effectiveness.

    He also added that a recommendation had been made to the state government for the insurance of every fire man in the state against unforeseen hazards in the course of doing the job.

    Read Also: Woman throws stepdaughters into well in Nasarawa

  • Fire razes Iponri Shopping Complex

    Properties worth millions of naira were destroyed in a fire incident that occurred at the Iponri Shopping Complex on Tuesday night.

    The fire, according to eye witnesses started around 11:18 pm on Tuesday and burnt about 17 shops before officials of the Lagos State Fire Services battled to put out the raging inferno said to have been triggered by an electrical surge.

    A similar incident had occurred in the same shopping complex on March 6, 2014, where two shops burnt before the fire service officials put out the fire.

    General Manager, Lagos State Management Authority, LASEMA, Dr. Femi Oke-Osanyintolu said the fire burnt several shops resulting in the loss of goods worth millions of naira.

    “Immediately the fire started, emergency response plan was activated. The fire was put off after the combined effort of emergency responders. No life was lost but it is pathetic to note that properties worth millions of naira were lost,” he said.

    Director, Lagos State Fire Service, Mr. Rasak Fadipe said that the fire started around 11.18 pm, with 17 shops burnt while efforts of the fire service men prevented further damage in the complex.

    “We battled the inferno when it was still raging,” he said, adding that officers at the fire service station at Sari-Iganmu were quickly mobilized as they came with their fire service tanker with 10,000 litres of water to quell the raging inferno.

    Fadipe explained that because of the magnitude of the inferno, the fire service stations at Ilupeju and Onikan were quickly mobilized with each of the station coming with 10,000 litres of water each which was used in putting out the fire.

    He disclosed that most of the items burnt in the 17 shops were generators, with other items such as different types of textiles, plastic materials, among others.

    The fire service boss said the inferno was as a result of upsurge of electricity, saying that few days ago, fire had occurred in the complex with two shops razed.

    According to him, some of the electric wires in the shopping complex were resting on the shops and that he had told the traders recently to get a good technician to adjust the electric cables from resting on their shops.

  • Three burnt to death as fire razes church in Ibadan

    Three worshippers at a church, Mercyland Prayers Ministry located at Okoro area of Ibadan city were burnt to death in an early morning inferno that razed the church Monday .

    Hundreds of members of the church as well as sympathisers gathered at the scene of the incident where some shed tears over the tragic fire.

    Also, four others including a pregnant woman escaped death by whiskers in the inferno which started at about 1.45am.

    It was learnt that trouble started when the fire said to have emanated towards the front axis of the church spread into some of the power generating set fully loaded with petrol resulting in the sudden spread into other parts of the church.

    During the inferno which lasted for almost three hours, the three worshippers two men and a woman, all the power generating sets fully loaded with petrol, the roof of the church as well as the plastic and wooden chairs were completely burnt.

    According to one of the lucky survivors identified as Akin, some of the worshippers were said to be sleeping when they were trapped by the raging fire.

    The survivor said the flame together with heavy smoke immediately enveloped the church resulting in the worshippers struggling for escape.

    He stressed that it took divine intervention for him to rescue a pregnant woman out of the thick smoke before heading for a nearby safe place.

    Despite the timely arrival of men of the Oyo state Fire brigade services, the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps and the Nigeria Police it took their frantic efforts before putting off the fire at about 4.05am

    It was however a weeping galore as hundreds of the symphatizers that stormed the scene sighted the three burnt bodies on the floor of the church.

  • Lagos lost N39b to fire in 2012 – Commissioner

    Lagos lost N39b to fire in 2012 – Commissioner

    Fire incidents across Lagos State in the last one year destroyed goods and properties worth at least N39.61b.

    The state Commissioner For Home Affairs and Culture, Mr. Oyinlomo Danmole, revealed this on Friday at a ministerial briefing to herald the sixth year anniversary of Governor Babatunde Fashola’s administration.

    He explained that most of the 2,342 fire cases occurred in residential buildings, pointing out that some of them could have been prevented if the right precautions were taken.

    The commissioner, however, said at least N139b in properties and goods were saved through quick response by men of the state’s fire service within the same period.

    “We are strengthening enlightenment using the various avenues and media on the need for residents to always take precautions against fire outbreaks and what they can do in emergency situations.

    “Issues of fire incidents are often prayed against,especially in this part of the world .So there is the need for residents to make adequate provisions for its prevention and curtailment, ” the News Agency of Nigeria quoted the commissioner as saying at the forum.

    He said the government was upgrading fire formations and establishing new ones across the state to ensure quicker response to emergencies.
    He added that 32 fire trucks and other fire fighting equipment had just been recently acquired for the fire service to boost their capacity to respond to fire incidents.

  • ‘223 died in Rivers fire incidents’

    No fewer than 223 people were killed in various fire incidents in Rivers between January and November 2012.

    The state Director of Fire Service, Mr. Oshogharhe Powa, made this known in a chat with the News Agency of Nigeria in Port Harcourt on Monday.

    Powa said that 84 persons were rescued from the fire disasters, while it saved property worth N17.37 billion during the period in review.

    He, however, said that property worth N1.26 billion were lost in the incidents, adding that Port Harcourt city and Obiakpo Local Government Area top list of places with high fire outbreaks.

    According to him, the fire occur more in residential buildings, especially houses built with woods and zinc, from electrical spark caused by illegal connection.

    “Some residents also caused the fire by refilling kerosene in their cooking stove and lanterns while they were on and some used candle light without holding it with the right stand,’’ he said.

    Powa urged the people to be fire-safety conscious, advising that they should always adhere to fire-safety rules.

    He observed that industries and companies in the state were always safety-conscious and had always engaged the service on time to fight any outbreak.