TWENTY-four self -contained apartment and millions of naira worth of property were, early Wednesday, destroyed, as fire gutted the the popular Ijeh Police Barracks in Obalende area of Lagos State.
The timely intervention of fire service men from Onikan and Sari Iganmu stations, with over 20,000 litres of water prevented the fire from spreading to the other two blocks around the scene of the fire incident.
Residents of the barracks claimed that the fire might have started from power surge from one of the self –contained apartments in the barracks, as the fire was noticed “ immediately PHCN restored power supply.
All the apartments on Line B , Block 3 of the heavily-populated police barracks were destroyed with hundreds of people rendered homeless by the early morning fire incident.
The fire was said to have cut short the night rest of thousands of occupants of the barracks, as it reportedly started around 3.30 a.m, when occupants were asleep.
Some of the occupants, who were able to salvage some valuables from their apartments were seen on Wednesday afternoon , trying to find where to keep them around the barracks.
A restaurant operator and a resident at the barracks, who simply identified herself as Mrs Francis, told the Nigerian Tribune that the fire really destroyed many things, as most of the victims were sleeping as of that time.
Mrs Francis said: “I own a restaurant here at the block, where I sell drinks and pepper soup; I was here till around 2.30 a.m. on Tuesday, before I went to bed with my family.
“It was not up to 30 minutes that we slept that the noise of fire, fire rented the air, if not that my family rushed out of our block, we would have been trapped inside.”
Another resident, who identified himself as Ibraheem, said that the Wednesday fire was the second in less than a year, with promises made after the first incident yet to be fulfilled.
Ibraheem said “again, we have lost our things. Last December. some people lost their property and the police authorities promised to do some things, but have not done it. Now, another fire has occurred.”
He, however, appealed to the Inspector General of Police to come to their aid and save them from further hardship, that they had been going through at the barracks.
Director of the Lagos State Fire Service, Rasak Fadipe, while speaking on the incident, blamed the rapid spread of the fire on the wooden materials used in apartments of the buildings.
“Twenty four self-contained buildings were burnt. The fire was able to spread, because only the outside of the buildings were bricks. The inner partitions were done with wooden materials,” Fadipe said.