Eyewitnesses, petty traders and passersby struggled to quench a fire that razed a mega fabric store, Brasas Fabric at the popular Balogun market in Lagos Island.
The store sitting on the third floor of Brasas Plaza, 43 Martins Street, Lagos Island was gutted by fire around 9am, destroying expensive clothing materials such as bridal clothing, sample laces, brocade, Jacquard lace, metallic lace etc.
The cause of the fire could not be ascertained.
The store owner later ordered that the remnants and partially affected ones be disposed off. This led to a serious tussle among the people as they began to fight one another in the bid to get hold of the materials.
According to the Director, Lagos Fire Service, Mr Rasaq Fadipe, it took the effort of four fire trucks deployed from Ilupeju, Isolo and two from Alausa headquarters to quell the fire from spreading.
He said the fire was further strengthened by close stockpiling of flammable materials.
He urged traders against blocking ventilation cannels in their environment to avoid disasters.
He said: “Around 10:49am, the distress call came in to the state fire service that there was an outbreak of fire on the island closes the Nigerian Insurance House that went in flames in 2014. I quickly dispatched the fire truck from Sari Iganmu and on arrival, we discovered that the fire was serious and we won’t be able to dampen it quickly. The fire trucks were strategically positioned at the rear of the building and front for the fire fighting operation. The building is about 5-storey but our prompt response prevented the fire from spreading to other floors. We are always careful anytime there is fire on the Island. You can physically see that the space between these buildings is very narrow that it can only occupy a pipe. So, if there is an outbreak of fire on the island, it spreads rapidly and it’s the reason we don’t joke with it at all. The first thing we did was to make sure that there was an opening for people to come out of the building because there are a lot of structures in the building and people didn’t know there was an outbreak of fire.”
On preventive measures, he said: “There is no small fire. Any fire outbreak will be followed by a sort of destruction, so we advise that when they are stockpiling, they should leave spaces. Secondly it is important for them to open door for fire service inspection for their own safety.”
