For about two months in Lagos, there have been incidents of fire—an average of 10 per day. Lives have been lost and properties that represented so many years of toiling and suffering have been consumed by the infernos. SEUN AKIOYE returns to some of the scenes and documents the harsh realities the victims face.
ABOUT 8:am, every morning, Mrs. Kemi Olorunwa would resume at the site of what was formerly her thriving shoe and bag store at the Global Plaza, Gbajumo Street, Balogun on Lagos Island. This is not strange as she has been working at the same site every day for several years. This time, however, her schedule has tragically changed.
On arrival, she found a spot in front of Global Plaza and sat with several other traders who had gathered at the site. The traders are united in their sorrow.and anguish. The subject of discussion centered mainly on how to resuscitate their business.
Intermittently, smoke erupts from the third floor of Global Plaza, sending the women momentarily in search of safer spots to sit. From the third floor, one could still hear the cringing of metals. Besides, there is the odour of fresh burning. Many times during the day, the traders remarked that the fire may still cause the building to collapse.
On Monday January 12th, 2015, Olorunwa was part of the crowd that watched helplessly as a raging midnight inferno consumed Global, OKK, Rich and Plaza 16 buildings. Despite the early arrival of the Lagos State Fire Servicemen and several other fire fighting trucks from construction giant, Julius Berger, the fire razed the buildings along with hundreds of millions of naira worth of goods.
Since then, life seems to have stopped for many of the traders. The women who had gathered in front of Global Plaza went through different emotions, ranging from laughter to sorrow; sometimes they spoke excitedly— of hope for the future, of starting afresh and of unpaid bills. But most of the time they were quiet, each one of them lost in her own thoughts.
“This is how we keep ourselves alive, we come here every day as we used to do before our shops got burnt and close at 6: pm. If we don’t do that and find comfort in the company of each other, some of us would have died,” Olorunwa said.
An ill wind
Many Lagos residents agreed that the harmattan that descended on Nigeria from December 2014 to January 2015 was an ill wind that brought with it disaster of monumental proportion. In Lagos, fire outbreaks assisted by the harmattan left in its wake hundreds of houses burnt down, businesses destroyed and hopes vanished. Because of the extremely dry and hazy weather, fire incidents which ordinarily would have been easily put out became monumental, destroying houses and businesses. The incessant fire outbreaks also stretched to the limit the resources and personel of the Lagos State Fire Service.
Rasak Fadipe has been at his job for over two decades as a fireman. It was a job his mother didn’t approve of but years after he “disobeyed” her to join the “Panapana”, he has risen to the top as Director Lagos State Fire Service. But Fadipe was the first to admit that the fire occurrences in Lagos have stretched the capacity of his men.
When The Nation met him on January 15th, he has had just a few hours of sleep in three days. His men too have been stretched as they battle one fire incident after the other. Fadipe admitted that the large number of fire incidents was helped by the harmattan.
The number of fire incidents recorded daily in Lagos have broken the records of recorded fire incidents so far. According to Fadipe, there is between 10 to 15 fire emergencies recorded daily while the highest number recorded in a day between December and January stood at 18.
“My men are hardworking guys who give their best to fight the fire emergencies in Lagos state, but it’s taking a toll on them. Many times, I had to cheer them up, for instance when we were responding to the Balogun fire, we responded to another 15 emergencies,” he said.
“We are living like animals”
Orinarilly, nobody would envy the living conditions of the inhabitants of Oko Baba sawmill extension, in Yaba Local Council Development Area (LCDA). Apart from living in plank houses erected on stilts which kept them away from the filthy ground by the Lagos lagoon, the residents are some of the poorest in Lagos state.
On the night of January 11, 2015, the fate of about 5,000 inhabitants was to be determined, not by the government, but by a fire which no one was sure of its origin. According to many of the residents, the fire began around 9:pm on the northern fringes of the settlement and in a twinkle of an eye, over 500 plank houses had been burnt to the ground.
Four days after the fire, the people of Oko Baba began to rebuild their shattered lives and homes. The land on which they were reconstructing their houses was a reclaimed part of the Lagoon, owned by Saw Mill owners who sublet it to tenants for at least N7,000 per annum.
Suleiman Babatunde, an Islamic cleric who has lived at the settlement for many years had just finished the roofing of his plank house. The spot on which the house was being built used to be his Koranic school which also doubled as his office. In the days of his prosperity, he had about 20 students in his school, the patronage was good. By the side, he had a deep freezer which his wife used for business, a big generator and many other electronics appliances.
After the fire, all that was left for Suleiman were his wife and two children.” What can we do, in everything we should give thanks to God at least we are alive,” he said and opened his palms towards heaven.
Suleiman had borrowed N60, 000 to rebuild his burnt office where he hoped his family would move into while he looked for money to rebuild the main house. The inner of the hut had been padded with used cardboards and cartons which would give the house warmth and also protect it against the rough edges of the plank.
Inside the house, his two children played endlessly; soon one of them went out and returned with about N50 worth of cooked rice wrapped in a small plastic bag. The two children sat down on the bare floor and devoured the meal. It would be their first meal of the day; time was 2:30pm.
“I do not have any money left, I honestly do not,” Suleiman said. The tale of poverty rang hollow in Oko Baba. After the fire, some of the victims could not get back on their feet. Many of them are petty traders whose tool of trade also got burnt in the inferno, starting afresh was almost impossible.
The victims of Oko Baba fire appeared to be at their wits end, but their problems were compounded four days after the fire when a chief from the Oloto of Otto Ilogbo called Buhari Oloto visited the community in company of about 10 policemen. The chief ordered the victims to immediately stop the construction of the houses and ordered everyone out of the settlement.
“Buhari Oloto came today. He said the land belongs to the Oloto of Otto and we are to move out. He said we should not rebuild this place and he has arrested all our carpenters. We borrowed money to buy the planks so that our children can find somewhere to stay away from the weather,” Suleiman told The Nation.
Samson Babatunde was angry at the interruption to the rebuilding of Oko Baba. He has just paid N45,000 for some planks and roofing sheets and work has been forced to a halt. That day, many of the victims stood in groups to discuss the development, there were unconfirmed reports that those arrested have been taken to Area C police command and thrown in jail. “What are we going to do now?, I have told my wives that as soon as we have some money, we will return to Ilorin where we came from, whatever we find there we will do,” Suleiman said.
But those who suffer the most are the over 500 children of the community, because most families have nothing to fall back on, they sleep either on the bare ground or at the saw mill, very close to the water front which also used to be the refuse dump. Those who are able to find a space at the latter are the fortunate, a small cramp place, families find a space under the shed or in between the saw milling machines.
This “prime” spot came at a cost. In the afternoon, flies are the adversaries and in the night, the breeze from the lagoon and mosquitoes. As a consequence of this unwholesome living, many of the children fell sick. Those who had relatives outside the community sent their children away while those who don’t continued to live in horror and fear. One of them is Saidat Olayiwola.
Saidat and her two children sleep every night under the tiny shed at one of the saw mills with about seven other families. There is no privacy here and the adults performed their toilets before dawn. “This is where we sleep, not just us here but in all the saw mills. Those who cannot find a space here sleep on the bare ground. We are suffering here and living like animals, all of us are sick, our children are sick, the government should help us,” she cried.
Mrs. Kuburat Yusuf and her husband found a space in between the machines where they sleep every night. She said she had just come out of a sickness and had spent all her money on medication. “This is my two bedroom apartment,” she said jocularly showing The Nation her bed. “Can you imagine it is human beings living like this? They said living in the plank houses was bad, if we had money won’t we have rented a better house?”
Among those who sleep under the shed at night is two –month-old Balikis. Her mother who declined to give her name said she had been having a tough time with the baby especially in the night. But in their misery and impoverishment, they found a communal spirit tending to each other’s needs and children. Saidat’s three-year-old daughter returned from school crying and the women swooped on her. One removed her uniform, while others tried to soothe her. Soon she found a space on one of the beds flung on the floor while her mother helped her out with her homework with flies buzz over her head mercilessly.
In another part of the settlement, Prince Ogunlana Tajudeen had just finished building a shed where his workshop used to be, unable to afford the charges of the artisans; he did the heavy works himself. “We are helpless, the harmattan helped the fire and burnt everything like paper,” he said.
But Tajudeen is still grateful, even though his loss is estimated at N5 million (including the cost of his heavy equipments), many others lost several millions. “Many others lost so much, I have to thank God, I still have my family,” he said.
Tajudeen’s wife has also resumed her trading under the shed built by her husband, it was not like it used to be but it was a place to start. “I built this so that my wife can start her business and when my children come from school they can find somewhere to stay,” he said.
But the victims have also learnt a lesson. According to the Secretary of Oko Baba Ward D, Seun Awodiya, the community has learnt bitter lessons from the fire: “We saw that the houses were interwoven, now we have demarcated them, we now have roads and spaces so next time we have another fire it will be limited,” he said.
“My brother, I am completely naked”
But there are others who do not have a “next time”. On the same day fire raged in Oko Baba, another tragedy was unfolding at Raimi Ajibowo Street Igando. The residents of house numbers 40 to 45 have gone to church when they received the sad news. Their houses, which perched at the edge of the Igando dumpsite, had caught fire. By the time the owners returned, nothing remained of their homes.
The victims blamed the tragedy on the activities inside the ‘bowler’ where the Lagos State Waste Management Board (LAWMA) had dumped thousands of used vehicle tyres. Some scavengers were said to have been in the habit of putting fire to the tyres so as to make use of the inner ring of copper which they claim is valuable. The residents of Ajibowo Street claimed they had complained to Lawma officials to desist from dumping the tyres without success, until the fire incident.
A resident gave an eye witness account: “The fire that caused this started from the dumpsite, but because of the harmattan season which helped the fire travel faster, it entered the bowler and as soon as the tyres caught fire it burned endlessly until these houses were consumed.”
The bowler where the tyres were dumped is a large gulf measuring almost 200 meters wide and over 500 feet deep. It sits parallel to Ajibowo Street which divided it from Igando General Hospital. The victims claimed they had built their houses before the bowler was dug by the operators of the dumpsite to accommodate more wastes. They said their complaints about an impending tragedy had gone unheeded.
But what surprised many people was that immediately the fire started, some Hausa scavengers entered the bowler and began to pack the burnt tyres. Five days after when The Nation visited, activities inside the gulf were still intense. Salimonu Dauda, the owner of the three bedroom flat on number 45, had been fighting the scavengers, The Nation found him in the midst of the deadly bowler in a fierce struggle with the determined scavengers.
“I suffered to build this house, I am a bricklayer, see my hands. Where will I start from, we do not have money but we live in our house, now my brother I am completely naked, please help me,” he said. Dauda took The Nation to his house and opened the iron door. Nothing remained of the home which housed the family of six, Dauda said, they did not take anything out.
“I was working when the fire started and they called me, we lost everything, there is no hope. Even this clothe I am wearing was given to me. My eldest children are sleeping around while they younger ones are in a church. My wife has almost killed herself over this, she is with some neighbours.”
The Nation met Dauda’s wife Tawa in the house where she was being kept a few meters from her now destroyed home. She was about 40 years old and it was obvious she had not had a shower in some days. She wore a blue blouse and a dirty purple oversized coat. She was crying and throwing herself on the floor, a woman apparently tired of consoling her sat beside her and watched.
“Everything I worked for in my youth has been destroyed. I said it and shouted that these people will burn my house, now they have done it. My life is destroyed.” As she spoke, she would throw herself off the bench and unto the ground; her husband carried her up and reprimanded her. She stopped for a while and then began a much louder lamentation.
“This is what I am saying, she had threatened to kill herself, the church where she was sleeping had sent her packing, her shop was destroyed in the fire, I don’t know what to do again,” Dauda said and sat on the bench with his hands covering his face.
Elizabeth Akinduro had cause to be thankful even though her house was burnt down. “I was in the church and my 75-year-old mother was alone in the house when the fire started, people helped me to drag her out, she could have been killed in the fire.”
That was the only thing that came out of the house, everything else was lost. Now, the children are scattered around sleeping wherever they could find. Akinduro’s children haven’t been to school since the incident. She had no hope of rebuilding the house. “There is no way I can rebuild this house, this was my last hope. I have only the clothe I am wearing, where will I start from,” she said.
Four houses were gutted on Ajibowo Street before the rage of the fire was halted by the Fire Service; some of the lucky residents thanked their stars. But a dangerous dimension has been added, a rumour was flying around that the government would take over the properties. Dauda called this reporter aside and said: “Please help us beg the government not to send us away, if we leave this place we have nowhere to go and we cannot return to our villages. “
His wife is still inconsolable and she seemed to have decided on suicide. “This morning, she told me to please help her look after her children, I don’t know what that means,” a neighbour said.
Meanwhile on Gbajumo Street Balogun market, the traders waited for the fire to finally die out. Kafila Giwa, who lost her store in Rich Plaza, said they come to the market everyday thinking there would be solution but they found none. She said the traders are eager to start their businesses again.
“We cannot talk about how much we lost, we want to start again, if the government wants to demolish these buildings let them do it and let us start our work again. Our children are suffering, many of us here are the breadwinners of our families,” Alake Ayinla said.
While waiting for government’s decision on the buildings, the traders amuse themselves whichever way they can. They live in constant anticipation of government’s intervention; the sight of a stranger brings renewed hope. “Is it you the government sent to help us? Do you have any money for us, can you buy food for us?” they asked the reporter.
But despite the façade they put on they are struggling to come to terms with their losses. “I come here so that I will not commit suicide,” Olakunle Idris said. Since the incident, he claimed to have been able to sleep only with the use of medications. Yussuf Adesina said he has been fighting depression. “I have been depressed that is why I come here every day to find comfort with my fellow traders, I don’t know how long I can hold out again,” he said.
Meanwhile at 6:pm, the traders whose stores were spared began to pack up for the day. Idris waited until it was dark and he joined the other traders to “close” for the day. He walked slowly to the bus stop to join a bus that will take him home. “If anybody ask me where I was coming from, I would say from work,” he said with a smile.
