Property worth millions of Naira has been destroyed as fire razed the transmission section of the Independent Television around 9pm on Saturday, March 7, 2015 in the Ovia North East Local Government Area of Edo State.
The station which is a private broadcast station owned by the Esama of Benin and renowned businessman, Chief Gabriel Igbinedion.
The fire burnt down the entire Masters Control Room thereby stopping the live transmission of the network news of the Nigerian Television Authority, NTA.
It took the combined effort of firefighters from the Edo State Fire Service, the University of Benin Fire Service and the Military Fire Service to extinguish the fire and prevent it from spreading to other parts of the building, reports Punch.
Meanwhile, the station’s Head of News, Mr. Abiodun Mudashiru, claimed that the fire outbreak emanated from a “light explosion.”
He said, “It was some minutes after 9pm last night (Saturday), when the network news was going on, that (technical) operatives observed that there was an explosion in the main studio.
“They usually sit behind the walls. When they heard the light explosion, they decided to investigate what was happening.
“In the process of doing that, the roof just came down at once with a wild fire. That was it and before we knew it, the whole place was engulfed in flames,” he said.
The police spokesperson of the state, Joseph Edoighiawerei, was unable to be reached for comments on the incident.
