Fire guts Lagos energy ministry’s office

There was confusion at the Lagos State Secretariat on Tuesday after an office in the Lagos State Ministry of Energy was gutted by fire.

Civil servants in Block 6, which housed the ministry and the state Ministry of Wealth Creation,  fled the building to the car park immediately the fire started around 2pm.

It was gathered that the fire was caused by a power surge after electricity was restored to the building.

Eyewitnesses told our correspondent that the fire started from the rack housing the Internet server at the ministry’s account department.

It was, however, gathered that a lady in the department saved the day by discovering the source of the fire and alerting her bosses, who in turn called the state fire service.

A state worker, who pleaded not to be named, said, “Workers in the ministry started noticing thick and choking smoke in the account room around 2pm and later discovered that it was a serious fire.

“Power had just been restored when the spark occurred, leading to the fire. It was the noise from some account workers that alerted everybody to the incident. We all rushed out of the building to avert disaster.”

The state firefighters came in two trucks a few minutes after the alarm was raised and they were able to put out the fire before it did much damage.

The Director, Administrative and Human Resources of the ministry, Mrs. Fiyinfoluwa Ogunbanke, said, “The fire emanated from the Internet rack in the account department. The server was not switched off when power went off and when power was restored, it caused the fire.”

She described the incident as minor, saying there was no casualty. She, however, added that the ministry needed more time to take stock of materials that might have been consumed by the fire.

The state fire service director, Rasak Fadipe, said firefighters were able to contain the fire before it could do any damage.

“This is what we have been preaching; call firefighters immediately a fire occurs. The action of the workers made us to respond on time and we were able to curtail the spread.”