There was a mild chaos at the Lagos State Secretariat as fire gutted an office in the Lagos State Ministry of Energy.
The fire which started from the rack housing the Internet server at the ministry’s account department was said to have been caused by a power surge when electricity was restored.
No casualty was recorded as 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 on Tuesday, May 3, 2016, Punch reports.
It was gathered that a lady in the department discovered the cause of the inferno and poited it out to her bosses, who subsequently alerted the state fire service.
Narrating the incident, a state worker, who preferred anonymity 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.”
The Lagos State Fire Service Director, Rasak Fadipe, said firefighters were able to contain the fire before it could do any damage.
He said: “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.”
