3rd September, 2014
Paul Iyoghojie
Fire has razed at least 40 apartments at Ijeh Police Barracks in Obalende, Lagos state.
About 40 rooms were gutted by fire at the Ijeh Police Barracks, Lagos, western Nigeria, on Wednesday. The incident, according to victims, occurred at Block C, Line A, at about 3am while residents were asleep.
The cause of the fire outbreak could not be ascertained as at the time of filing this report. Victims gave conflicting accounts of the cause. A version had it that the electric water heater switched on by a resident in the building exploded and caused the fire outbreak.
The source said the resident switched on the heater and forgot to switch it off before he went to bed, adding that after the water in the kettle dried up, the boiler exploded and caused the fire outbreak.
Another source claimed that the fire erupted when one of the electricity generating sets kept in the passage in the sprawling building exploded.
When P.M.NEWS visited the scene, the distraught victims of the burnt building were seen wailing over their losses.
According to a female victim who refused to mention her name, “I was woken up by shouts of ‘fire, fire’ but before anybody could pick a pin, the fire engulfed the whole building and spread rapidly due to the air conditioners and generating sets that were exploding.
“All the tenants fled to safety with some of them with only wrappers and pants on. Though we thank God that no life was lost to the inferno, we are appealing to the authorities concerned to come to our aid urgently because we have lost all our properties and apartments to the fire.
“We and our children now have no place to sleep.”