The Lagos State Emergency Management Agency, LASEMA, on Sunday, July 16, rescued seven motherless children from an orphanage home in the Aguda area of the state that was engulfed by a domestic fire.
The agency in a statement released said it received a distress call at about 2.43pm and in a swift response, successfully rescued all seven, male children in the one-storey building, housing an orphanage/motherless babies home. The agency says the fire reportedly started from an air conditioning unit in the house as a result of power surge.
‘’A one-storey building housing an orphanage/motherless babies home, was engulfed by fire which reportedly started from an air conditioning unit in the house as a result of power surge which was said to have quickly spread out. A total of seven boys with ages ranging between one and seven years were quickly evacuated from the Home and safely relocated to the compound opposite the Home. Management Team of the Home informed LRT of plans to relocate the children to the house of the owner of the Home temporarily, to ensure their welfare was sustained. The fire which had initially spread to the storage room of the home has been extinguished with dampening down concluded. Post Disaster Assessment revealed that the whole of the first floor was salvaged, while the fire was contained in the store room and the rest of the ground floor was also salvaged. The children were formally handed over to the Deputy Director, Mr Balogun and Mrs Rasheedat Sadik, both of the Child Protection Unit of the Lagos State Ministry of Youth and Social Development, who then formally handed the Seven children over to the RED CROSS"the statement read
Furthermore, the statement from Office of the Permanent Secretary of LASEMA has it that, "no injuries, nor casualties were recorded in the near fatal incident, saying that the Operation was successfully concluded in record time".