Fire guts train, Samsung office in Lagos-Punch: A major tragedy was averted on Thursday after fire gutted a train belonging to the Nigeria Railway Corporation in the Ebute-Meta area of Lagos State.
Our correspondent, who was at the scene of the incident, observed that two coaches were completely damaged by the fire, as residents scampered for safety.
This is just as another fire gutted the Samsung store on the Allen Avenue, Ikeja, destroying electronic gadgets.
Our correspondent had, however, observed smoke billowing from behind the parked train.
Some minutes later, the fire aggravated, which quickly drew the attention of residents.
The fire service was called, but they did not arrive until about 30 minutes after the fire had spread and caught two coaches.
Some of the workers tried to combat the flames with water and fire extinguishers, but the efforts did not yield any result.
The fire service later arrived and put out the fire, after other parts of the train had been detached from the coaches.
The Nigeria Railway Corporation District Public Relations Officer, Khadijat Adekomaiya, said the fire had caused serious loss to the corporation.
She said, “The coaches were parked for repairs and when we noticed the fire, we asked all our workers to move out. We tried fighting the fire with fire extinguishers to reduce the damage before the arrival of firefighters.
“We will ensure a thorough investigation so that it does not recur in the future. As you can see, we only suffered material loss, no one sustained injuries and no life was lost.”
In the Ikeja fire incident, a government worker, Kayode Opayemi, said the fire began around 1pm.
Opayemi explained that the fire started from the company’s storeroom.
He said, “I was in my office at the Onigbogbo Local Council Development Area when I sighted smoke billowing from Samsung’s storeroom. I quickly alerted the fire service.
“I also mobilised some residents to the scene and with the company’s two fire extinguishers, we started fighting the fire from the storeroom. But the burglary proof was too strong and it was difficult for us to put out the flame because there were a lot of flammable materials. It later spread to the offices.”
It was gathered that the company was able to pack some of the electronic gadgets to safety.
Our correspondent observed five water trucks of the Lagos State Fire Service combating the inferno, as officials of the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency supported them.
The Deputy Director of the Lagos State Fire Service, Musibau Rasaki, faulted the company for not having a safety officer.
He said the agency had been combating the fire for over three hours without success because the company was sealed up.
He said, “We could not break through to put out the flames because the place was sealed up. They also do not have a safety officer and that made our job very difficult.”