Olufemi Oke-Osanyintolu, the director general, Lagos State Emergency Management Agency, LASEMA, has confirmed that 17 people sustained injuries, including a pregnant woman and firefighter at another inferno in Lagos.
Oke-Osanyintolu made the disclosure in an interview with News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, at the Martins fire outbreak scene at about 9:30 p.m. in Lagos on Wednesday, January 29, 2020.
According to him, “17 people sustained injuries, 15 were treated at the scene and discharged, while the remaining two, a pregnant woman and a firefighter had been hospitalised.”
He said that the pregnant woman’s injury was as a result of shock she experienced and the Lagos State Fire Service Staff (firefighter) sustained injuries in one of the collapsed building.
“A total of nine buildings were severely affected, four had already collapsed and being leveled to ground zero having failed integrity tests.
”The remaining five buildings also affected will be subjected to testing; those that fail will also be demolished.
”The bulk of the fire has been curtailed, while some pockets remain along with some residual sparks and the fire services continue in their efforts to fully extinguish the flames,” Oke-Osanyintolu told NAN.
He, however, urged Lagos residents and traders to remain calm and assured them of Babajide Sanwo-Olu, the governor of Lagos state commitment to the safety and security of all in the state.
Also speaking, the director general, Lagos State Safety Commission, LASSC, Lanre Mojola, expressed shock.
Mojola said that his team were at the market on January 19 to sensitise them to the need to ensure safety in the market to avoid fire outbreak, which led to loss of lives and valuable goods in 2019.
He said that it was unfortunate that in spite of the awareness another disaster took place again.
Hakeem Odumosu, the Lagos State’s commissioner of Police, advised that the safety commission should enforce and avoid being sentimental.
He said the full assessment of the fire outbreak could not be ascertained now, adding that from what he had seen so far, the collapsed building was a man-made disaster.
“The information we gathered on the ground now is that it was just a generator that was being refuelled, the generator was not even on the first floor, if it had been on the ground floor, it would have been easier for them to curtail it.
”Coupled with the lackadaisical attitude of our people, it is when somebody is alive that he can make money, the routes where the emergency services ought to follow to get inside had been blocked with various goods and now it becomes difficult for them to move in.”
Odumosu said that police would be on the ground through out until the evacuation was completed to ensure that there were no more casualties.
Margaret Oluseye, the acting director, Lagos State Fire Services, said they had been putting out the fire since 10:15a.m.
She urged Nigerians to have attitudinal change towards safety of lives and property to avoid constant fire incidents in the state.
“I cannot imagine someone fuelling generator while the generator was on and the lackadaisical attitude led to the fire outbreak, which have affected many buildings in Martins Street,” she said.
