Lagos CBN office on fire

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THERE was a stampede late on Tuesday as fire razed the  Broad Street , Marina Lagos office of Central Bank of Nigeria.
A yet to be identified firefighter from the Lagos State Fire and Emergency service suffocated and became unconscious and was rushed to the hospital.
The fire which started around  6 o’ clock in the evening destroyed many valuables on the first floor of the building, where it was first noticed on the ground floor.

The timely arrival of firefighters from the Lagos State Fire and Emergency Service , Federal Fire Service and officials of the National Emergency Management Agency, Lagos State Emergency Management Agency and other people prevented the building from being totally burnt.
Many offices were, however, completely burnt and efforts were being made to ascertain their number and the cause of the fire as of the time of filing this report.
The Nigerian Tribune gathered that workers at the bank were trying to move some of the bank’ s sensitive documents from the old building to the new building , when the fire incident started.
The incident resulted in serious vehicular and human traffic along Broad Street, following the confusion that ensued as people tried to escape from the scene.
The spokesperson of NEMA, Ibrahim Farinloye, confirmed the incident to the Nigerian Tribune and added that nobody was trapped in the incident.
Farinloye also said that firefighters had to break windows of some offices so as to gain entrance into them to ascertain that there was no fresh fire.
He said “the fire actually started from the first floor and it affected many offices. Fire fighters from the state fire service and Federal fire service were able to curtail it.
He, however, stated that many offices were burnt by the ravaging fire incident while the cause of the fire was still unknown.
The director  of the Lagos State Fire and Emergency Service, Rasak Fadipe, also confirmed the incident and assured that the fire would be properly checkmated.
Fadipe  stated that the state fire fighters got an emergency  call around 5 45 p.m. that the CBN building was on fire and that men were quickly mobilized to the scene.
He stated that apart from the federal fire fighters , who were also at the scene , officials from Sari Iganmu and Onikan were mobilized to the scene with each of them carrying 10,000 litres of water each.
 The Lagos State Fire and Emergency Service  boss stated that fire fighters had to rely on aerial ladder, since the fire  had gone beyond the first floor.
Fadipe also stated that apart from the state  and the Federal Fire Service, fire fighters from Union Bank and UBA also assisted in putting out the fire.
It did not affect our records —CBN
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has assured members of the public and all stakeholders that the fire incident which occured at its Lagos office on Tuesday did not affect vital records as it was promptly put out by a combined team of CBN’s fire service officers and other neighbouring institutions.
In a statement signed by its Director, Corporate Communications, Mr. Ugochukwu Okoroafor, the bank said details as to the cause of the fire which occurred at the second floor of the bank’s Lagos head office were yet to be verified.
“We wish to assure all stakeholders that our records are intact as all records are backed up as part of our data infrastructure,” the statement read in part.
When contacted, some members of staff said they were on their way home when they got calls from security men on duty that the building was on fire.
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