Fire destroyes properties in Lagos, Ibadan

A one-storey building on Abike Suleiman Street in the Lekki area of Lagos State has been destroyed by fire.

Photos from the fire scene reveal extensive damage, with the roof of the building destroyed and windows shattered on the affected floor.

Household items, including furniture, air conditioning units, and utensils, were also consumed by the blaze.

The Permanent Secretary of the Lagos State Emergency Management Authority (LASEMA), Olufemi Oke-Osanyintolu, stated that the agency received distress calls about the fire and immediately activated the State’s Emergency Response Plans.

The LASEMA Shark Response Team from the Lekki base was dispatched to the scene.

Upon arrival, the response team discovered that the building was fully engulfed in flames. While the cause of the fire remains unknown at the time of this report, no casualties or injuries were recorded.

Oke-Osanyintolu noted that LASEMA’s intervention, in collaboration with other emergency responders, successfully curtailed the fire from spreading to nearby buildings.

“The inferno was contained from escalating to adjoining buildings. The fire has been completely extinguished, and the dampening down operation has been concluded,” he said.

Ibadan-Lagos Expressway

Another fire outbreak has destroyed properties worth millions of naira at the Ibadan end of the Lagos Expressway in Oluyole Local Government Area on Friday.

Four shops were completely razed, while multiple others were saved due to the swift intervention of the Oyo State Fire Services.

An eyewitness reported that the incident occurred in the early hours of Friday. Residents in the neighbourhood battled to control the fire before the arrival of emergency responders.

According to the eyewitness, thick smoke was visible from a distance. “Initially, we thought it was from a burning bush along the expressway.

However, we later discovered that some shops beside Topfeeds had been engulfed by fire. We mobilized ourselves to save the situation, but there was little we could do,” the source said.

The General Manager of the Oyo State Fire Services Agency, Rev. Akinyemi Akinyinka, confirmed the incident in a report to newsmen in Ibadan.

He disclosed that the fire was reported to the agency at 5:50 a.m. on Friday, January 3, 2025, by a resident, Mrs. Adejoke.

“The fire incident was reported through GSM regarding shops on fire at the address mentioned. Our personnel, led by ACFS Adediji, promptly deployed to the scene and arrived in time.

On arrival, the four shops were already well alight. We quickly got to work, and the fire was restricted to where we met it,” the report stated.

Rev. Akinyinka noted that while properties worth millions of naira were lost, shops and materials valued at billions of naira were protected from the devastating blaze. He also confirmed that no lives were lost in the incident.

The fire was traced to an unattended naked flame left by a woman cooking in one of the affected shops.