Mamman Kantagora House up in flame in Lagos

The popular Mamman Kantagora House, at the Lagos State, a 14 storey building, was gutted by fire in the early morning of today.

The building accommodates the National Deposit Insurance Company office (NDIC), Federal Mortgage Bank and Diamond Bank.  Commercial activities in these companies were halted due to the sudden outbreak of the fire.
The fire was said to have been caused by an oil spillage from one of the generating set installed on the fourth floor of the building.
The fire incident also paralyzed the whole business activities of the day, while staff were seen bringing out some of their burnt documents from the building.
The staff noticed smoke coming out of the generator room of the fourth floor of the building around 10am.
One of the staff of the company, who spoke on the condition of anonymity said: “When I noticed the smoke in the morning, I quickly drew the attention of the chief security officer of the company to the smoke. He said it was a minor something, which would be fixed. Within few hours, the whole building had become engulfed in a thick smoke. The smoke made every occupants of the building to be running for their dear lives.”
The Managing Director of the Federal Mortgage bank, Mr. Gimba Kumoh, said: “The fire took us by surprise. We were all in our various offices when suddenly we heard the shout of fire. Immediately everybody rushed out of their offices for safety. Some workers were however trapped, but later rescued by fire fighters.”
The Head of the Lagos State Emergency Management Authority (LASEMA), Mr. Femi Giwa said: “We received a distressed call that a seven storey building was burning on the Island. We ran down to scene of the incident. With the assistant of fire fighters from the Union Bank, United Bank for Africa (UBA), the Nigerian Port Authority fire service and the Lagos State fire service, we were able to put out the fire.”
 He  said  the  cause of the  fire  was as a result of the  oil spill from the generator’s room  that spread to the other  part of the building, adding that no casualty  was recorded. When our correspondent visited the scene, some workers who were trapped in the building were seen been rescued out of the building.