TheNewsGuru

Tag: Fire

  • Lagos fire kills 84, destroys N12.8bn properties

    Over 84 persons have died from different fire incidents just as properties valued at N12.8 billion were damaged since the past one year, according to the Lagos State Government.

    Commissioner for Special Duties and Inter-Governmental Relations Oluseye Oladejo made the disclosure on Monday.

    According to Oladejo, 333 victims were rescued while the agency had 202 rescue calls and 83 false calls.

    “84 were also recovered dead. Despite the sizeable number of incidents recorded the state government was able to respond promptly to emergencies thereby saving lots of lives and properties,” the commissioner added.

    “Within the period under review, the state government rehabilitated and upgraded 225 old fire hydrants that were initially below ground level in Lagos Metropolis and Installed 50 new additional ones to link the Mini/Micro Water Works in the state.

    “The hydrants have been providing easy access to copious water supply for firemen during firefighting and rescue operations.”

  • Danjuma’s call for self defence shocking, scary – Presidency

    The Presidency on Saturday reacted to recent calls by former Defence Minister, TY Danjuma urging Nigerians to pick up arms and defend themselves against killer herdsmen.

    It noted that such unpatriotic call by a senior citizen were both ‘shocking and scary’.

    It also has appealed to prominent Nigerians, who have national influence, to desist from making inciting statements but rather use their influence wisely.

    Malam Garba Shehu, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, made the appeal in a statement issued in Abuja on Saturday.

    The presidential aide said the appeal became necessary to caution Nigerians against engaging in public declarations that were likely to inflame emotional passions and threaten national security.

    He said: “The Presidency is very worried that criminal gangs will feel justified in defying legal governing and democratic institutions, and authority of legitimately elected democratic government if unrestrained pronouncements are made.

    “Silence can be dignified, but sometimes it can be misinterpreted and exploited. It is both shocking and scary to hear the recent comments by a senior citizen calling for Nigerians to defend themselves.

    “The Presidency commends the Nigerian military’s efforts to maintain peace and stability, despite being pulled in various directions by elements determined to destabilize the country and government for their selfish reasons.

    “What country would survive if its citizens rise against the country’s organized, trained and equipped military?’’

    Shehu, therefore, advised former leaders to use the various fora where people with a history of national security could offer advice to the government without resorting to the exploitation of emotional sentiments.

    “The civil war motto: “TO KEEP NIGERIA ONE IS A TASK THAT MUST BE DONE” rings very timely at this time in our nation’s history. We must be careful to avoid the mess that destroyed other African countries like Somalia,’’ he concluded.

    Recall that the statement by a former minister of defence, retired Lt. Gen. Theophilus Danjuma, that the military was failing to protect Nigerians from attacks had continued to attract reactions from prominent Nigerians.

    The latest of such reactions came from the Coalition for Nigeria Movement led by former President Olusegun Obasanjo, which raised concerns that security agencies in the country may have been corrupted ahead of the 2019 general elections.

    A spokesman for the group, Mr Akin Osuntokun, who stated this in an interview with a national newspaper, said the statement credited to TY Danjuma that the security agencies were allegedly failing in their duties should not be dismissed.

    Gov. Darius Ishaku of Taraba had on Tuesday also blamed the nation’s security heads for allegedly doing nothing to check security threats in the state.

     

  • [Photos] Nine feared dead, several injured as fire razes IDP camp in Borno

    Not less than nine people were reportedly feared dead after a fire outbreak occurred at the Internally Displaced Persons, IDPs, camp in Rann, Kala Balge Local Government area of Borno State.

    This is following an outbreak of fire, which killed nine people and injured many others in the camp.

    According to information gathered from one Suleiman Ajiya, on Monday, the IDPs had been left with nothing after the United Nations withdrew its staff and support from that part of the state.

    “Our people have been dying of hunger and starvation since the UN left. There is nothing to eat as the little that is available from government and well meaning Nigerians is not even enough for the women and children.

    “There is also no medical care and people are now open to so many diseases due to hunger and starvation in the camp. Also lack of water has been a problem, which the people have been battling with.

    “Today, at about 12 noon, there was a fire outbreak. Some people who were down due to hunger and its related sickness were choked. There was no water to fight the fire, thereby living no help for those who were trapped in the fire.

    “We lost nine people with several others injured as a result of the fire incident this afternoon. We are calling for help for these people because they are really suffering for now,” Ajiya said.

  • Properties worth millions of Naira destroyed as fire razes Ojota market

    Fire gutted a section of Binukonu Ultra Modern Market, Ojota in Lagos in the early hours of Friday, destroying goods and property worth millions of Naira.

    This is the third fire incident at the market in three years. Previous incidents occurred in 2015 and November 2017.

    Friday’s fire, which was believed to have been caused by an electrical fault, started at 1.30am and razed over fifty stalls in the market.

    At 4.10am when the NANcorrespondent arrived at the scene, firefighters who came with two trucks from the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency were seen putting out the fire, which was still raging.

    Panicky traders tried to salvage their goods in their shops from the approaching fire.

    Alhaja Rehanat Salami, the female Head of the market (Iya-Oloja) said that the fire was caused by an electrical fault.

    She said, “I didn’t look at the time when I received a phone call that the market was burning when I hurriedly started coming here.

    “When the fire occurred on the two previous occasions, we did everything the government instructed us to do.

    “When the fire occurred the first time, the government helped us to reconstruct the affected stalls for free.

    “I heard that this fire was caused by an electrical spark, I had warned everyone to always turn off their electricity connections when there is a power outage.

    “We make sure we put off all the lights when we close for the day at the market.”

    The secretary of the market, Mr. Gbenga Fayemi revealed previous efforts the management of the market had made to prevent a reoccurrence of a fire outbreak.

    “This fire that occurred just now is the third time that it is occurring,the first was three years ago and the last one occurred last year.

    “The traders had not fully recovered from the previous incidents when this one occurred despite all our efforts to prevent a reoccurrence.

    “When the first incident occurred Honourable Rotimi Agunsoye of the House of Representatives gave us some firefighting equipment.

    “When the second incident occurred, we tried using the equipment but it didn’t quench the fire.

    “I also installed the equipment in all these shops that got burnt because I was told that the equipment will burst and stop the fire when a fire begins but I was surprised that it did not work today,” he said.

    Fayemi said the fire services did not arrive at the scene till about 2.30am which was an hour after the first call was made to alert them about the blaze.

    “When they came, their water was not enough I had to tell them to send more water tankers here because the fire was much more than we expected.

    “Two fire trucks are here from LASEMA, the firefighters had to go to Ogba to get more water, I wonder why the water channels created by Lagos State Government don’t work,” he said.

    Mrs. Olabisi Salami, a trader who sells frozen meat and fish in the market tearfully lamented to NAN about her financial losses.

    She said “I was called at 2 a.m. that the market was on fire, when I got here I realised everywhere has been totally burnt.

    “I have no insurance. When the first incident occurred, the local government rebuilt the affected stalls.

    “I had just used a loan to purchase a lot of fresh frozen produce on Tuesday in preparation for the Easter holiday and now this happened on Friday.

    “I have lost five deep freezers and goods worth N1.6million to this fire, Nigerians should help me, I don’t know what to do, this is the second time this is happening to me,”Salami lamented.

    Another trader, Mrs Toyin Shodara, also talked about her losses in the fire incident.

    “I sell drinks and snacks, I got to know about the fire incident about 3 am this morning. I have a month old baby, so I could not come immediately I heard the news. It was my husband that came.

    “The fire wasn’t a lot on my own side of the market, I was able to salvage a few things, though it affected my freezer, plastic drinks and my crates of minerals.

    “I have no insurance, I don’t know how I will recover from this. Everything is in the hands of God,” she said.

    Other traders who were badly affected by the fire declined interviews with NAN because they were too distraught to speak.

    Mr. Kehinde Adebayo, the Public Relations Officer of LASEMA, in a phone interview told NAN that he could not comment on the alleged one-hour lateness of the fire services and insufficient water in the fire trucks.

    “I cannot comment on that, only the Managing Director can comment on that. What I can do is to issue an official press statement. All I can say before the statement is issued is that there was sufficient water for the fire trucks,” he said.

  • Fire razes 22 shops in Kano

    Fire razes 22 shops in Kano

    An early morning fire outbreak on Wednesday destroyed at least, 22 shops at Yankatako market in Rijiyar Lemo in Kano.

    The Public Relations Officer of the State Fire Service, Alhaji Saidu Mohammed, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Kano, that the incident happened 3.10 a.m.

    “We received a distress call early hours of today (Wednesday) from one Muhammed Yahaya from Kurna division at about 3.10 a.m that, there was fire outbreak at the market.

    ”On receiving the information, we quickly sent some of our personnel and fire fighting vehicle to the scene of the incident at about 3.14 a.m to quench the fire, “he said.

    Mohammed said the cause of the fire was under investigation.

    He advised traders at the market and other residents to be more careful and desist from using instruments capable of triggering fire as a way of guarding against future occurrence.

    The spokesman also advised the people to keep fire bucket, blanket and fire extinguisher that would enable them curtail the fire before calling on the fire service.

     

    NAN

  • Exposed! Passenger raises alarm over fire incident on Accra bound Arik Flight

    An Accra bound Arik Air Flight W3304 from Lagos Tuesday day night was alleged to have caught fire 35 minutes after take off from the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos.

    The 55 minutes flight was operated by a Bombardier Q400 (Dash 8) aircraft and took off at about 7:20p.m. Nigerian time.

    A passenger who narrated his experience on the flight, said the fire was noticed when an acrid smell of burning plastic wafted through the cabin of the aircraft, accompanied by huge smoke, which the passenger who declined to disclose his identity, said could not be traced by the frantic cabin crew.

    The passenger who provided details of the incident, described it as a horrible experience which could have been fatal.

    According to the passenger, “Thirty-five minutes into the 55-minute flight, I started smelling something like a burning stuff. Shortly after, the guy sitting next to me asked if I could smell something burning and that confirmed my worst fears.

    “Before you could say Jack Robinson, smoke had filled the cabin. The air hostesses were busy scampering around opening the cabins and the lavatories to check if they could trace the source of the smoke without success.

    “While that continued, the oxygen masks that are always advertised during the safety demo prior to take-off could not be released, instead we were handed tissue paper to cover our noses to minimise and filter any possible carbon monoxide inhalation.

    “About five minutes after, precisely with 15 minutes of flight time remaining, the pilot came on the public address system to inform us that they have smoke coming into the cabin but they did not know the source of the smoke and that they have declared an emergency.”

    The passenger said he was relieved when the flight successfully landed by 8.15p.m. (7.15 p.m. Accra time) into the waiting arms of several fire service trucks at the Kotoko International Airport, Accra.

    “We were evacuated into a waiting bus with instructions to leave everything behind in the cabin. Sadly. there was no Arik official to address us, nor was there any manner of first aid given to the passengers to manage stress and possible elevated blood pressure.

    “After a while our cabin luggage were brought to us and we had to leave from there to go through the Ghanaian immigration to our individual destinations,” he added.

    Since the incident occurred neither the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA.) nor the management of the airline has issued any statement on the incident.

    Reacting to the incident, the communications manager of the airline, Banji Ola, said in a statement: “Arik Air Flight W3 304 from Lagos to Accra on March 6, 2018 declared an emergency in line with standard operating procedures when an unknown source of smoke was detected in the cabin 81 miles from Accra.

    “The captain of the flight briefed the passengers accordingly, assuring them that the aircraft was under control and safe for landing in Accra.

    “The aircraft, a Dash 8 Q400, landed safely in Accra without further incident and all passengers disembarked normally.

    “The aircraft is currently parked in Accra and our team of engineers are conducting a comprehensive inspection on the aircraft to ascertain the cause of the smoke, after which the aircraft will be flown without passengers to a maintenance facility for rectification and testing.

    “The relevant aviation authorities in Ghana and Nigeria have been briefed appropriately on the incident.”

    “If anyone is in doubt, I can be reached through chymexus@yahoo.com and I can provide my phone number for further verification.” the passenger wrote

    Meanwhile, Nigeria’s domestic carrier, Dana Air, thursday reacted to the directive given by the federal government that its operations should be audited, adding that it was ready for the exercise.

    “We therefore welcome the recent audit ordered by the federal government and we are willing to work with the team and the federal government to demonstrate our commitment not just to flying but to flying safe,” the airline said.

    In a statement signed by its head of communications, Kingsley Ezenwa, Dana Air commended the Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB) for releasing preliminary report on the incident when its flight overshot the runway and skidded into the bush at the Port Harcourt International Airport, Omagwa on February 23, 2018.

    It said the report has confirmed its earlier statement that Air Traffic Control directed the pilot in command of the flight to land on the runway over flooded by heavy downpour.

    The airline said: “Excerpts of the reports confirmed that the Air Traffic Control, an arm of the Nigerian Air Space Management Agency that is saddled with the responsibility of issuing instructions that the pilots are required to obey, had cleared the pilot in command to land.

    “It is pertinent to note that the pilot of that flight is a happily married man and a proud father of three beautiful children. He has over 30 years experience in the aviation industry and is one of the very best in his profession, meticulous in his duties, and headhunted from another domestic airline where he also served as the head of safety and quality standards,” the statement said.

    The airline remarked that considering the safety measures that it has put in place and its huge investment in training and retraining of its crew and pilots, “we decided not to join issues, but to rather wait on the report of the AIB, the authentic body responsible for such investigations.”

    It disclosed that in 2013, the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) and its foreign partners, the Flight Safety Group, carried out an audit on its operations and in 2016, as a result of its commitment to global safety standards, “we applied to become a member of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), went through their audit and subsequently became a member in 2016.

    “Our route and fleet expansion program is still very much on course and we remain dedicated to our recent interline and aircraft partnership with Asky airline, another formidable airline in Africa,” it also said.

    It commended the Minister of State, Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika, “who has proven himself as a technocrat, and our esteemed guests for keeping faith with us while the incident was under investigation and we wish to reassure our guests of our commitment towards providing safe, reliable and affordable air transport.”

  • Fire razes ultra-modern IDP camp in Plateau

    The newly constructed ultra-modern Internally Displaced Persons ( IDPs ) Camp in Shendam Local Government Area (LGA) of Plateau has been razed by fire.

    The camp was constructed by the Presidential Committee on Flood, Relief and Rehabilitation, which came into being after the 2012 flood disaster that ravaged 24 states in the country.

    Mr Bintan Wuyep, Director, Relief and Rehabilitation, Plateau Emergency Management Agency ( SEMA ) confirmed the inferno while speaking with our reporter in Jos on Thursday.

    Wuyep, who is the Acting Executive Secretary of the agency, said the disaster occurred on Tuesday.

    He said, however, that SEMA had been unable to assess the level of damage due to paucity of funds.

    “We don’t have funds even to fuel our vehicle to go to the camp to ascertain the cause of the inferno and assess the extent of damage.

    “We have gone everywhere even for a loan, but we have not succeeded.

    “Hence, we cannot give the exact level of damage caused by the sad incident,” Wuyep said.

    The Acting executive secretary described the incident as “a big loss to Plateau and Nigeria as a whole.’’

    According to him, the camp was meant to house Displaced Persons that might be affected in future disaster in any part of the state.

    Wuyep added that SEMA had already informed the Presidential Committee of the sad development.

    “The committee told us to assess the damage and formally write a report informing them of the cause and extent of damage.

    “But like I said earlier, we are constrained by lack of funds,” he said.

    Wuyep appealed to the State Government to empower the agency with funds to enable it function according to the law establishing it.

    He commended the State House of Assembly for its resolve to investigate the cause of the inferno.

    Wuyep stated that the action was not just timely but necessary.

  • Senate adjourns sitting over fire incident

    The Senate has suspended its Thursday’s sitting after fire broke out in a section of the National Assembly building.

    The fire at the maintenance unit of the senate occurred at about 11 a.m.

    Lawmakers initially tried to go ahead with its plenary, but were compelled to cut it short.

    After adoption of votes and proceedings, Ibrahim Gobir, Sokoto-APC, moved that the plenary be adjourned due to the “unconducive” state of the chamber.

    “The condition is not very conducive because our chambers are there; yesterday we engaged the contractors working in the senate. We believe it is now Saturday they will be able to finish it,” he said.

    Senate President, Bukola Saraki, approved the prayer.

    He said, “What you presented to us makes sense. Definitely the chamber is not conducive for today’s s activities and as such, I would direct that we adjourn till Tuesday so that between now and the weekend the members of the services and maintenance unit can ensure that we bring the chamber into a conducive environment.”

  • Tears as Osun NULGE chairman dies in midnight fire

    There was pandemonium in Osun State on Thursday as the Chairman of the Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees in Ayedaade Local Government Area, Mr. Tajudeen Alabi, died in a fire that ravaged his home around 1 am on Thursday.

    It was gathered that the NULGE chairman was burnt to death in his sleep when fire gutted some shops located close to his residence. The fire was said to have spread to his residence and he was affected.

    It was not clear if there were other casualties in the inferno but a resident of the area, who pleaded anonymity told our correspondent that the wife of the deceased and other members of the family were not at home when the incident happened.

    The source said some of the neighbours of the deceased blamed the fire incident on a power surge. He added that they told sympathisers, who thronged the residence of the NULGE chairman that the fire started at around 1am and destroyed property worth millions of naira.

    He said, “I learnt that the fire started from some shops located close to his house. The fire was said to have started around 1am as a result of power surge but some of the people said it was a mysterious fire.

    “They said they heard screaming but it was too late before they could get to the place.”

    The Chairman, Nigeria Labour Congress in Osun State, Mr. Tunde Adekomi, could not be reached on the telephone despite efforts made by our correspondent.

    However, the Public Relations Officer of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, Mr. Babawale Afolabi, confirmed the incident to our correspondent on the telephone.

    He said, “I was told by our officer in the local government area that the incident happened and the man died in the inferno.”

  • BREAKING: Herdsmen invade, set Olu Falae’s farm ablaze

    BREAKING: Herdsmen invade, set Olu Falae’s farm ablaze

    Former minister of aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode has raised an alarm over an invasion of a farm belonging to former Secretary of the Government of the Federationn, SGF, Chief Olu Falae, by suspected Fulani herdsmen.

    Fani-Kayode who made the outcry in a statement forwarded to TheNewsGuru.com via mail on Sunday alleged that the herdsmen had set the entirety of Chief Falae’s farm ablaze.

    His words, “Fulani terrorists have just set Chief Olu Falae’s entire farm in Ondo state on fire. The place is ablaze right now.

    “Baba Falae is one of the most respected and reverred leaders of Afenifere and the Yoruba nation. Only two years ago the same Fulani terrorists kidnapped him and almost killed him.

    “I ask Buhari and Miyetti Allah, does he deserve this? Is this fair? How many more people have to die and how many more farms have to be destroyed before you will call these barbarians to order and bring them to book?”

    As at the time TheNewsGuru.com filed this report, every attempts to reach Falae proved abortive.

     

    More details soon…