No Cause For Alarm – Waec Insists As Fire Guts Kaduna Office

SAN FRANCISCO, April 04, (THEWILL) – The West African Examinations Council (WAEC), lost 10 computers holding vital records and information about all schools in the zone following a fire outhreak that gutted part of its office in Kaduna on Tuesday.

The council however declared that examination papers were not affected by the inferno, which erupted at about 9.50 a.m insisting that there is no cause for alarm.

According to the Deputy Zonal Coordinator in charge of Kaduna office, Fidelis Gaiya, the fire probably started from an electrical spark or fault as he told journalists that he was at the office when the incident occurred, and that no casualty was recorded.

He explained that the incident would not affect the ongoing examination because the question papers were safe and commended the Federal Fire Service, Nigeria Air Force, State University and State Fire Service for responding fast to the situation.

“We were running on generator. When they restored electricity, we saw smoke all over the place,” he stated.

“We are grateful that no life was lost because most of our staff members were out to their various examination centres.

“We are grateful to all the fire service departments that responded very fast to the situation. Otherwise, the damage would have been more than this.”

Meanwhile, the Deputy Comptroller of the Federal Fire Service, Thompson Mohammed, reiterated the need for fire extinguishers to be installed in offices and liaise with the service to train their staff on how to operate fire extinguishers in order to reduce the rate of damages caused by fire.

“I am sure if there were fire extinguishers here with trained men, the damage would have been minimal.”