The Lagos State Government has revealed cause of inferno that claimed many lives at a six-storey commercial building on Broad Street, named Afriland Towers, saying the poisonous smoke inhaled after the fire broke out suffocated the deceased
The incident which claimed 10 lives, according to the state government, was caused by a spark on the inverter batteries, powering light to the tower located at the basement of the building.
This was revealed by the Director-General and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Lagos State Safety Commission, Lanre Mojola, along side the state’s Commissioner for Information and Strategy, the Director-General, Lagos State Fire and Rescue Service, Margaret Adeseye and the Director, Lagos State Ambulance Service, LASAMBUS, Wuraola Makinde at press conference on Thursday.
Mojola, who said the smoke from the source of the fire spread quickly to all the floors, dispelled insinuations that the rescue team arrived late at the scenes adding that emergency responders responded quickly on receiving a distress call.
“At 1:30pm, we received a distress call and quickly mobilised. On the ground were LASAMBUS, LASEMA and Safety Commission. The director of fire went straight to the building to ascertain where the fire was coming from and discovered it was from the basement of the high rise building. It was found that it was caused by the inverter batteries in the basement. The smoke from the fire quickly spread through the basement and went up across all the floors,” Mojola said.
The DG added that the tower had adequate fire rescue equipment, exit points and alarm system noting that the alarm was working at the time of the incident.
“ People panicked, anxious to go out of the building while inhaling the smoke which resulted in casualties. No one died from injury from the fire, “ he said.
He called on owners of high rise building in the state to continue to apply for certification of their buildings from the state government and assured of the government’s resolve to protect lives of the people
Corroborating Mojola, the Director-General, Lagos State Fire and Rescue Service, Adeseye said officers of the service arrived at the scene 20 minutes after they received a distress call.
“ The response was timely. We received a call at 1:38pm and arrived at the scene at 1:56pm. We found out there were sympathisers trying to assist the victims to escape the building. We quickly tried to rescue the occupants. Our preliminary investigation also revealed the cause of the fire to be from the inverter in the basement. There were three exits, smoke detectors and a hose.
The alarm was ringing and the victims were so anxious to get out, some were trying to force their way out. They could have escaped through the exits, probably some were waiting for people to come and rescue them. The victims died from smoke from the incident,” she said.
