Fire Erupts In Lagos Energy Ministry’s Office

SAN FRANCISCO, May 05, (THEWILL) – The Lagos State Secretariat was recently thrown into a state of confusion after a fire outbreak was noticed in an office in the state Ministry of Energy. This caused civil servants in Block 6, which housed the ministry and the state Ministry of Wealth Creation, to flee to the car park.

The fire, which started around 2pm on Tuesday, was said to have caused by a power surge after electricity was restored to the building. It began from the rack housing the Internet server at the account department of the ministry.

The Punch 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. Few minutes afterwards, the state firefighters came in two trucks and succeeded in putting out the fire before it did much damage.

A civil servant, who pleaded anonymity, told the newspaper that, “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.”

According to the Director, Administrative and Human Resources of the ministry, Mrs. Fiyinfoluwa Ogunbanke, “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.”

While describing the incident as minor as there was no casualty, she 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.”