Rage of fire: Heartrending story of victims of fire

Segun Ajiboye and Innocent Duru  

People all over the world ushered in the New Year with revelry. For them, it may have been goodbye to a year in which fears were raised that maybe God has decided to obliterate the world with water.

In Nigeria, floods left many communities across the country submerged, killing 363 people, while 2.1 million were displaced.

 But the sigh of relief may have come too soon for many; a few weeks into the New Year, the floods seem to have been replaced by fire. In less than two weeks into the New Year, more than 200 major incidents have been recorded across the country, destroying property running into several millions of naira, while lives were also lost.

The Lago State Command of the Federal Fire Service, said it recorded 188 fire incidents and 18 other emergencies, including collapsed buildings in 2012.

The Command’s Public Relations Officer(PRO), Chike Njoku, said that 168 deaths, including the victims of June 3 Dana plane crash, were recorded, while 48 lives were rescued.

According to him, causes of the fire incidents included fireworks, candle light, storage of petroleum products wrongly and other human forces. He also blamed fuel scarcity experienced during the year, which made people to store fuel in their homes and wrong places, for the fire incidents.

“We attended to more fire incidents in 2012 than the previous years, particularly towards the end of the year. The fire incidents happened in private homes, public buildings, warehouses, sawmills and fuel tankers,’’ he said.

The Director, Lagos State Fire Services, Rasaq Fadipe, said a total of 125 fire incidents were recorded in Lagos in the last two weeks. This sure is a bad omen of what the year foretells for Nigerians.

On Boxing Day, while the rest of Nigerians were still in celebration mood, pandemonium broke out in Jankara Market in the Isale Eko area of Lagos State after a building containing a stockpile of firecrackers caught fire, killing at least one person and injuring 40 others. The fire also destroyed at least 12 buildings, while 10 vehicles were completely burnt.

The fire went on to prove that it is no respecter of anybody when news broke that ravenous fire had destroyed a section of the Hilltop mansion of former President Olusegun Obasanjo on Presidential Boulevard, Abeokuta, Ogun State. The source of the fire, which consumed property worth millions of naira, was also traced to a power surge.

The surge occurred around 4.25pm, two days after Christmas, when the erstwhile President had left the house. Besides, the fire reportedly broke out in his private office near his bedroom. He was lucky because the state fire service reportedly responded rapidly and managed to contain the blaze.

Unfortunately, the fires refused to end with 2012. The New Year started with the fire ‘burning’ on all cylinders when residents of two buildings on Jones Street in the Ebute Meta area of Lagos lost a lot of property to a fire incident.

Barely 48 hours later, a one-storey building was gutted by fire on Igando Road, Ikotun area of the state, while another was razed by fire in the Fola Agoro area of Lagos.

The fire continued its path of destruction on January 6 when the office of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was destroyed by fire, which ravaged the commission’s Voter Registry Department and destroyed some equipment.

Traders at Oke-Padre market in Ibadan, Oyo State, also witnessed the rage of fire when it consumed about 20 shops at the popular electronic market.

Goods worth several millions of naira were said to have been damaged in the fire which started from one of the rooms in the market. Eyewitnesses said the fire started around 9.30am, just as the traders were opening for business.

The rage of the fires continued when it visited the ancient town of Oyo. It unleashed its fury on abode of the most prominent personality in the town; the Palace of the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi III, where 21 rooms were razed by fire. It was learnt that the fire was caused by electrical surge in one of the rooms.

Three apartments occupied by the Alaafin’s wives and the rooms – Ile Ori and Ile Ifa – where artefacts were kept were affected. No life was lost and nobody sustained injury.

Alaafin’s Media Assistant, Alhaji Azeez Fehintola, later said: “The extent of the damage is beyond my imagination. I broke down in tears when I saw the havoc. The fire outbreak was caused by electrical surge; it started around 6am and lasted three hours.’’

Many residents of Apapa, Ajegunle and its environs ran for dear life recently when a mid-day explosion at the Tin Can Island rocked the area. An MRS tank farm/ depot situated within the port complex was said to have exploded.

Eyewitnesses explained that the fire erupted at the depot at about 11.30pm and led to twin explosions which shook the Tin Can Island Port environs, leaving four persons with varying degrees of injuries on the MRS Oil premises.

Many residents of Oko Baba Community, Ebute Meta, a suburb of Lagos, were hit by a mid-day fire which destroyed over 50 shanties in the area. Reports showed that sawmill equipment worth millions of naira were also destroyed in the fire which lasted over two hours. Although, the cause of the fire was not known, but it was said that it spread speedily because the shanties and shops in the area were built with wood.

Among the saw millers was 47-year-old Alex Sunday, who started life sawing woods at the plank market at Ebute Metta. His life has turned nightmarish since he lost virtually all he had laboured for in life was burnt.

Sitting despondently on a broken table, he told The Nation that he was enjoying his Christmas holiday in his home town when he received the unpalatable news. He lamented that his children have not gone to school since the beginning of the new session because he lacks the means of paying their school fees.

 He said: “I have been doing business in this place for over 20 years. I lost about N2.8 million to the fire.  I was not in Lagos when the incident occurred. I was in my village for the Christmas holiday because sawmill doesn’t operate during Yuletide period. We went on break on the 22^nd of December and were to resume on the 14^th of this month (January).  This is actually not the first time that fire will raze this market but this is the first time I lost my valuables to it.  

“It is a serious setback for me because I lost virtually all I had laboured for in my life. My brother that is abroad was the one that assisted me to start this business. Where or who would I go to for assistance to start up again?   As I speak, my children have not gone to school since the new term began. They are at home because I don’t have the means to pay their school fees.”

Equally pathetic is the plight of Charles Ifebigh who laboured sawing woods for a living for years before he could raise money to start his business. The 55 year-old- trader was short of words when our correspondents approached him. Despair ruled his existence as he gazed emptily into the air. He was lost and confused over where and how to start again. Would he go back to breaking firewood to raise money with grey hair all over his head? This and many more were the rhetorical questions that flipped through his mind unhindered.

“I have lost everything” was how he painstakingly responded to our correspondents’ question of the value of his loss to the fire incident.

After much persuasion, the visibly heart-broken father of two added “I have been in this market for over 35 years. I started as a plank breaker before I could raise money to start my personal business.  As a plank breaker, you don’t get much money for the job you do. This is to let you know that it took a lot of hard work and time before I could raise money to start my own plank business. But see what fire has done to me after all my years of hard labour.

“My kids are in the university. I don’t know how I would continue to pay their bills because my investment has been ruined by this fire. I lost about N3.5million to the fire.  I am currently depending on friends to make both ends meet. I don’t know where to start from again. Would I go back to breaking planks for people at this old age to raise money to start all over again?”

Narrating his ordeal, Akeem Ishola said: “I started this business 19 years ago. I learnt it trade in the hands of my uncle. He gave me money to start after my apprenticeship. I was eating when the fire began from the other side of my shop. I quickly abandoned my food and joined others to put out the fire so that it would not go out of hand. Unfortunately, our efforts were not enough. The heat of the fire was so intense that we were forced to run away for our dear lives.

“I lost an industrial generator that I bought for N1.8million three years ago. In all, I lost about N4million to the fire.  This is the second time I suffered similar loss. The first was in February 2010. Then, it was only my goods that were burnt but this recent one burnt both my goods and my machines. I am in total crisis as I am talking to you because my landlord gave me quit notice before the fire incident. I was just planning to raise money to get a new accommodation this month but that is presently impossible but I have taken solace in God.”

Mrs. Williams’ case is indeed pathetic. She is into the same business with her husband, both of whom use same office and workshop for their business. The fire destroyed virtually everything husband and wife had gathered after a similar experience sometimes ago. She had suffered similar loss that destroyed all her life investment when a mystery evening fire destroyed their business few years ago.

Though she is taking the latest tragedy stoically, she said: “What do you want me to say again? This is the second time that I have lost my investment to fire without any compensation from anywhere. The business is owned by my husband and I, so you can imagine how much we would have been financially setback.

“After the first incident, friends supported us with funds with which we started up again.  We have succeeded in paying all of them back, but here is another fire. Where do we go for assistance? I lost about N8million to the incident. The first incident gutted our big generator that we bought for N1.8 million two years ago. This last fire also consumed the new one we bought for N2.5million.

The fire incident did not only destroy Folusho Oladipupo’s investment, it also dashed his hope  of completing his building project. He told The Nation that he has been idle and depending on friends for survival since the incident occurred.

“I have been in this business for over 5 years. I lost over N700, 000 to the fire. I lost huge sum of my investment to similar fire some few years ago. I had the plan of completing my house this year but it looks impossible with this loss.”