Over 5,000 displaced as fire razes 5 houses, sawmill in Lagos

LAGOS— Fire, Monday night, engulfed five buildings and a sawmill in Oko-Baba area of Ebute-Metta, Lagos, displacing over 5,000 persons.

Property worth millions of naira were also destroyed in the inferno. The cause of the fire, which started at about 10.30 pm and raged till the early hours of yesterday, could not be ascertained. However, no casualty was recorded but several persons reportedly sustained injuries in the resultant stampede. It was gathered that a similar incident occurred in the sawmill and bolt-up buildings last year.

Fire men attacked

Vanguard gathered that officials of the fire service, who arrived the scene to contain the fire, were attacked by some hoodlums, with one of the fire trucks smashed. The attack was said to have delayed the rescue work of the fire fighters.

Director, Lagos State Fire Service, Mr Rasaq Fadipe, said three fire trucks were deplored to the scene when news of the incident reached them. On his part, the South-West spokesman of the National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, Ibrahim Farinloye, said: “No casualty was recorded. We could not wait to count the number of houses affected. Except residents give number of houses affected, one cannot estimate. But they were just temporary structures built with planks. The fire consumed five bungalows built with sand concrete, multiple bolt up buildings and sawmill.

“When men of the fire service arrived the scene, hoodlums struggled to take control of the fire fighting, thereby endangering lives but they were resisted and they turned against the firemen.”

…In Somolu

Farinloye also said a three-bedroom flat and a two-storey building at 14, Ayodele Bajulaye, Somolu were also consumed by fire.