Fire fighters on Tuesday prevented the Seventh Day Adventists Church Headquarters
on Benson Street, Maryland, Lagos from burning down after a building housing
the electricity generating plant of the church caught fire.
It was learnt that the fire which started around 3pm razed down the
generator building.
Pandemonium broke out in the area as flames engulfed the generator
house. Residents of the area said the
fire lasted for over 30 minutes.
The residents said the intervention of the firefighters prevented the
flames from spreading to the main church building.
A policeman in the area, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said
the fire was due to the negligence.
“We learnt that the generator supplying electricity to the church building
was on. However, at the same time, they were refueling the generator. How can
you do that? The whole thing caught fire and the firefighters came around 30
minutes after to quell the fire,” he said.
A vulcaniser on the street, who identified himself simply as Sunday,
said the incident caused panic on the street.
“What happened was that some hours ago, a vehicle came to supply diesel
to the church. As they were loading fuel into the tank, the fuel touched the
silencer of the generator and fire sparked .It took some minutes before the
firefighters arrived at the scene,” he said.
The church authorities declined speaking to our correspondent.
Some security men at the gate of the church prevented our reporters from
meeting with any of the church officials.
The security men said there was a standing instruction that no
journalist should be allowed to enter as the church authorities were not
interested in commenting on the incident. The security men also said they were
not allowed to speak on the fire.
The Director of the state fire service, Rasak Fadipe, confirmed the
incident.
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