Fire razes two buildings in Lagos
Scene of the fire
Residents of two buildings on Jones Street, Ebute Meta area of Lagos on New Year’s Day lost a lot of property to a fire incident that occurred in the area.
Our correspondent learnt that the fire started around 10pm, when a tenant in one of the buildings left what she was cooking on the fire.
It was gathered that two people fainted during the incidents and property belonging to occupants of both buildings were destroyed, including those of a newly-wed couple.
It was also learnt one of the houses was razed while the other was only partially burnt due to early intervention by residents of the area.
An eyewitness, Adeola Adeleke, said the fire escalated owing to the carelessness of an occupant who did not raise the alarm to attract other neighbours on time.
He said, “A woman, who lives in the building caused the fire. She was cooking and carelessly left what she was cooking on the fire without until it totally burnt into ashes and caused the fire.
“Fortunately, she noticed the fire and instead of her to call the attention of other occupants, she started packing her belongings. We just saw her packing her property. When she was asked what happened, she refused to talk until the fire escalated.
“What pained me most is the property of the newly-wed couple that got burnt. It is so unfortunate because it is certain that they would have lost the entire gifts they were given during their wedding, and such gifts bring a lot of memories.
A resident of the area, who identified himself as Uthman, said the fire became intense due to the petrol stored in the first house built with planks and roofing sheets.
He said, “The incident was so unfortunate. It started around 10pm and stopped with intervention of the residents and firefighters around 12pm. I learnt it took so much time to extinguish the fire due to the petrol stored in one of the affected buildings.
“Thank God nobody died though people secured slight injury and I heard two people or so fainted due to the shock.”
Uthman urged the government to provide adequate shelter for people in the state to avoid similar incident.
He said, “Nobody would like to stay in a house built with plank, but shelter is very important. That is why they keep rebuilding the houses when they are burnt.
“Government should probably put in place a mortgage arrangement for them to avoid the risk to lives.”
January 3, 2013 by Sodiq Oyeleke
Written by NEWSTRAWL ONLINE UPDATE
Sodiq Oyeleke is a Media, Human Resources, Project Management and Public Relations Practitioner
0 comments:
Post a Comment