The Nation Newspaper

Tag: fire

  • Fire razes 69 shops in Niger market

    54 permanent locked-up shops, 15 attached shops and merchandise worth over N100 million were burnt down by a late night fire in the Monday Market in New Bussa in Niger state.

    The fire incident occurred on Sunday night and the cause of the fire is yet unknown.

    Owners of the locked up shops said they could not rescue the goods in their shops as most of them were not aware of the fire until on Monday morning.

    The Director General of the Niger State Emergency Management Agency, (NSEMA) Alhaji Ahmed Ibrahim Inga confirmed that the goods lost will be worth over N100 million saying all the goods in the shops were burnt to aches as none was rescued.

    The Niger State Governor, Alhaji Abubakar Sani-Bello who made an on-the-spot assessment to the burnt section of the market said time has come for the government to provide functional fire fighting station in each of the 25 local government areas of the state.

    He lamented that fire outbreaks in markets across the state are gradually becoming a reoccurring incident, hence the need to build fire stations in markets and Local Government headquarters.

    “This is not the first time we are experiencing fire outbreak in markets across the state. Now it has happened in New Bussa but the most important thing is that no life was lost.

    “What we can do is to ensure that we have fire service stations in all the Local Government headquarters and we have built seven stations already. So we also have to ensure we set up one here as soon as possible so that when there is fire outbreak we can contain it before it cause more damages.”

    The Governor assured the victims of government support to ameliorate their hardship, “government will ensure it provides support to the victims to reduce their hardship”.

    He then called on the State Emergency Management Agency to embark in proper assessment to identify victims and look into how they would be compensated.

  • Fire razes police station in Anambra

    A police station in Ajalli, Orumba North Local Government Area of Anambra State, has been burnt by hoodlums suspected to be members of the outlawed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).

    It was alleged that some detainees were freed while some vehicles were also burnt.

    It was gathered that the hoodlums beat up policemen on duty, shouting ‘no referendum, no election in Biafran territory”.

    Police spokesman Haruna Mohammed, who confirmed the incident, said there were no casualties.

    Read also: Police deploy 55 CPs in states

    He added that the Commissioner of Police, Mustapha Dandaura, had visited the scene and investigation was on.

    “It’s a fire incident for now until otherwise proven through investigation. The Commissioner of police is presently at the scene for on-the-spot assessment. He has ordered the DC Department of Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department to conduct investigation to ascertain circumstances surrounding the incident,” he added.

  • Breaking: Fire guts smart card readers at INEC office in Anambra

    Barely four days to the Presidential and National Assembly elections, fire on Tuesday gutted two containers housing Smart Card Readers for the conduct of elections at INEC headquarters in Awka, Anambra.

    The News Agency of Nigeria reports that men of Anambra Fire Service were still battling with the fire as at the time of filing this report.

    Combined personnel of the Police, Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) and the Department of State Security (DSS) were on ground to ensure there was safety and orderliness around the vicinity.

    Confirming the fire, Dr Nkwachukwu Orji, the Independent National Electoral Commission Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in Anambra, said he was yet to ascertain the extent of damage.

    Orji said the sensitive materials affected were smart card readers meant for the general elections.

    “I don’t have the details of how the fire started; all I know is that there was a fire incident involving the containers that house some of our sensitive materials.

    “We have to do an assessment before we can ascertain the extent of damage, we have been storing equipments in that facility since 2011,” he said.

    NAN reports that this incident is the second in the South East as INEC office in Isiala Ngwa, Abia was penultimate week gutted by fire by unidentified persons. (NAN)

  • Fire razes 70 shops in Kano market

    The Kano State Fire Service said fire has destroyed 70 temporary shops at Yan’Katako Market in Rijayar Lemo area of Kano.

    The Spokesman of the State Fire Service, Alhaji Saidu Mohammed confirmed the incident to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Kano on Thursday.

    The spokesman said 30 of the shops were completely razed down while 40 were slightly burnt.

    “We received a distress call in the early hours of Thursday at about 03:45 am from one Bashir Suleiman that there was fire outbreak at the market.

    Read Also; Kano is not working, says Mohammed Abacha

    “On receiving the information, we quickly sent some of our personnel and fire fighting vehicles to the scene of the incident at about 03:52 am to quench the fire so as not to affect other shops,“ he said.

    He advised traders at the market and other residents to be more careful and desist from using instruments capable of triggering fire as a way of guarding against future occurrence.

    Mohammed also advised the people to keep fire buckets, blankets and extinguishers that would enable them curtail any fire outbreak before calling on the fire service.

    Mohammed said the cause of the fire is being investigated. (NAN)

  • Fire guts UAC building, two others

    Fire yesterday gutted the United African Company (UAC) building at CMS, Lagos Island.

    The building of Sun Flag Textile, opposite First Bank, Iganmu and a house at 23, Alhaji Ashafa Street, Magodo, also went up in flames.

    A car also caught fire in Ikeja, opposite Ikeja Shopping Mall.

    Lagos State Fire Service lamented the incessant fire outbreaks.

    It attributed them to carelessness by residents.

    The Nation learnt that the fire at UAC started around 12:55pm.

    A Lagos State Traffic Management Agency (LASTMA) source said emergency responders were on the scene of the fire.

    A woman, with twitter handle name, Pamilerin, gave a minute-by-minute report of what went on.

    Glasses, she said, were shattered in the inferno and properties destroyed.

    Pamilerin said the workers were hurriedly evacuated from top floors.

    She said they were seen standing downstairs watching the building going up in flames.

    Fire service promptly mobilised their men to the scene.

    Lagos State Fire Service Assistant Chief Public Affairs Officer Bola Ajao said in a statement yesterday that firefighters from Sari Iganmu Fire Station, with the support of Ilupeju Fire Station, arrived at Sun Flag Textile building around 9:12am and put out the fire.

    She said Ilupeju Fire Station responded to the UAC building inferno.

    The safety exercise, she said, was complemented by other emergency responders.

    The UAC fire, she added, reportedly started from the air conditioned unit in one of the offices on the 10th floor of the 12- storey building.

    “The officers were able to confine the raging inferno to the office and thus prevented it from spreading to other offices and floors.  Sanity was later restored, to the applause of onlookers,” Ajao said.

    The Nation learnt that the Alausa Fire Station received an alert around 11:12am that a residential building at 23, Alhaji Ashafa Street, Magodo was in flames.

    It was gathered that the fire was prevented from spreading to other buildings.

    Acting Director Lagos State Fire Service Rasaki Musibau said but for the professionalism by the firefighters, the fires would have escalated and resulted in disaster.

    He said the Service had recorded over 119 fire incidents across the state in January alone.

    Musibau lamented that valuables worth millions of Naira and lives had been lost daily to avoidable fire outbreaks.

    He said the directorate received no fewer than 17 fire emergencies weekly, noting that this calls for concern.

    Musibau said the fire officers as first responder to emergency and incident management have been empowered and equipped to tackle any form of natural and man-made incident.

    He appealed to Lagosians to get familiar with the emergency toll free numbers 767/112, to avert loss of life and property.

     

  • Journalist loses property to fire

    A fire incident which occurred in the early hours of Saturday has claimed the life of a 19-year- old boy and destroyed properties worth millions of naira. Among the properties destroyed was a pharmaceutical shop in Mpape area of Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

    The landlady occupied one of the apartments and the other by a tenant, Oludare Richards who is a reporter with The Guardian Newspapers.

    The journalist and his family, who were not at home when the inferno began, lost all their properties.

    Narrating his ordeal, Richards told Abuja Review that the landlady and three out of her five children had gone out for the business of the day while the other two were left at home.

    One of the two teenagers, he said, included a 19-year-old boy who was a survivor of an accident seven years ago died in the fire and was burnt almost beyond recognition.

    Richards said the remains of the boy was moved to a mortuary when the landlady and her other children arrived.

    Explaining the cause of the inferno, he said: “The other child of the landlady who was supposed to be home on her turn for the rotation for care-taking of the boy, left a pot cooking on a lit burner and went to the market.”

    However, when her family arrived at the scene, the narrative changed as the girl later denied cooking.

    The police on the other hand, were quick enough to arrive at the scene of the fire incident and it was put out by youths in the community.

    The police, Richards said, have begun investigations into the matter.

    Richards also lost properties including documents to the inferno.

  • Fire claims two children in Kano

    Two children have died following an early morning fire outbreak in a two-bedroom house at Sharada, Ja’en Yamma, in Kano metropolis yesterday.

    The spokesman of the State Fire Service, Alhaji Saidu Mohammed, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Kano that the victims were aged four and seven years.

    “We received a distress call in the early hours of this morning (Monday) from one Malam Bello Tukur at about 2:09 a.m. that there was a fire outbreak at a dwelling house.

    Read also: Fire renders family of eight homeless

    “Upon receiving the information, we quickly dispatched a fire engine to the scene at about 2:15 a.m, to bring the fire under control,’’ he said.

    Mohammed said the parents of the children had run out of the house in search of help from neighbours when the fire started, but efforts made to retrieve the children was not successful.

    He said however that the firemen later handed over the corpses of the two children to the police after putting off the fire, adding that investigation had commenced to determine the cause of the incident.

  • How we lost millions to fire

    Traders  at Asa Nnentu Motor Spare Parts market in Ugwunagbo LGA popularly known as (Ala Ojii) andAba Motor Park in Umuahia North Local Government Area of Abia State are counting their losses following the fire incidents that destroyed  their  shops recently.

    Goods estimated at over N400million are believed to have perished  at Asa Nnentu Motor Spare Parts market alone.

    Speaking on the incident, Moses Onyebuchi, an electrician and a driver who gave his name as James at the Aba Park, Umuahia, the state capital attributed the cause of the fire to indiscriminate burning of refuse at the back of one of the shops in the market.

    Comrade Ajaegbu Morrison, the Secretary of Patrons of Asa Nnentu Motor Spare Parts Market and one of the victims of the fire incident described that incident as devastating.

    He appealed for help for the victims  from government .

    Ajaegbu said “I was about to pray before going  to bed when my phone rang. I checked my phone to see who was calling and it was one of my neighbors.

    ”He  told me that he learnt that our market was on fire and that it was mainly on F-Line where my shop was located. After some minutes, I got another call from another  neighbor  telling me that my shop was among those  that were razed  by the inferno.

    ”It was then I decided to come and see things for myself .

    ”About 12 shops were affected by the inferno. We don’t use electricity here and so, we can’t say that it was caused by power surge. We stored no  petrol in our shops. So, there was  no way the fire  could have been caused by fuel or electricity surge.

    ”However, when we came back in the morning, we noticed that there was fire in the borrow pit at the back of our shops where the contractors rehabilitating the Aba-Enugu-Port Harcourt road come  to excavate red mud from. How it got to my shops and my neighbours, I can’t really tell.

    ”We are appealing to the federal, state and Ugwunagbo local government authorities to come to our aide.

    ”Since the fire incident occurred, we have been doing practically nothing. We have been sitting here, praying to God to send helpers  our way.

    ”We have reached out to the local government chairman and have been making efforts to reach the state government. They are yet to come and we are not giving up yet. We will continue to make efforts to see that even the lawmakers representing us; Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe and Hon. Uzoma Abonta and well-meaning Abians  come to our aide.

    ”We lost over N400m. One of the car engines that got burnt here is over N1million. If you calculate the buildings and the motor spare parts in the shops, it will even be more than that. That is why we are calling on the state governor to come to our aid.

    ”We are not happy that such a thing happened to us. It is not our plans to disturb him, but in this case, we are only appealing to the governor and other well-meaning Abians and Nigerians to come to our aide. It is too much for  us to bear.

    Read also: Updated: Fire guts 70 shops in Minna market

    ”The federal government through NEMA (National Emergency Management Agency) should please come to our rescue. We have our house rents and children’s school fees to pay this January.

    Another victim, Chukwudi Alexander Anucha, a native of Isiala Ngwa South LGA of the State while fighting hard to hold back tears, corroborated Morrison’s account of the inferno.

    He said: ”before the fire incident, I had gone to the bank to withdraw all the monies that I had to buy and stock goods in my shop.

    “There was an engine that I bought for over a million naira. Some people had already indicated interest in buying the  engine. They were supposed to come and pay for the engine in the morning of the unfortunate inferno.

    “There were other engines that people planned to come and pay for this month.

    “We are now surviving through the assistance of some friends and relatives. We are asking for the assistance of government. There is absolutely nothing that was saved from our shops. We are pained by the loss and hope that the appropriate authorities including our dear Governor, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu will come to our aid.

    “We can barely afford food  for our family, but with their assistance, we are confident that we are going to come out of this stronger.”

  • Early morning fire destroys one room, seven shops in Kano

    The Kano State Fire Service on Wednesday said that an early morning fire affected one room and seven shops at Weatherhead Road, SabonGari, in the Kano metropolis.

     

    The spokesman of the service, Alhaji Saidu Mohammed, disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Kano.

    Mohammed explained that the incident happened at about 2:19 a.m. on Wednesday, though he could not immediately estimate the value of the goods lost in the incident.

     

    He said the fire affected one room in the residential building, while seven shops were slightly burnt.

    Mohammed said that the quick intervention of firemen prevented the spread of the inferno.He added that the service had commenced investigation into the cause of the fire incident.

     

    Read Also: Fire destroys 77 shops in Kano market

    We received a distress call in the early hours of this morning (Wednesday) from one Mr Wale Adebayo at about 2:19 a.m. that there was a fire outbreak at a dwelling house.

     

    “Upon receiving the information, we quickly dispatched a fire engine to the scene, to bring the fire under control,’’ he said.

    In a related development, Mohammed disclosed that at about 9:37 a.m. also on Wednesday, a dwelling house (one parlour and one room) and a warehouse at Bello Road also got burnt.

     

    He, however, advised residents to be more careful, especially during the dry season and to desist from using instruments that could trigger fire incidents in their neighbourhoods.

     

    Mohammed said the advice became necessary because the harmattan season was fast approaching, hence the need for residents to be more cautious, even while cooking.

     

    NAN

  • Fire guts house at Oshodi

    •Belongings worth thousands of naira destroyed

    Fire yesterday gutted a bungalow at Baderin Street, Mafoluku, Oshodi, Lagos.

    A source said the inferno was caused by a power surge, adding that the fire started after electricity was restored.

    The source said the fire started from the back of the building and destroyed items before the arrival of Lagos State Fire Service officials, who put it out.

    The Nation learnt that officers and men from Makinde Police Station, Mafoluku, Oshodi assisted the fire officials to maintain law and order.

    Tenants and sympathisers reportedly battled to prevent the fire from spreading to other buildings.

    Read also: Nigeria’s taxpayer population hits 33m, says Fowler

    They evacuated belongings such as mattresses, fridges, fans, clothes, furniture and other items from the building: