Lagos witnessed another fire outbreak yesterday, which was said to have started overnight and gutted a popular mechanic village in the Agidingbi area of the state.
National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has said 23 vehicles, 16 shops, 38 generators, computers and gas cylinders worth millions of naira were torched, raising eyebrows over the issue of safety in areas with high concentration of combustible items. NEMA also stated that no life was lost.
An eyewitness said it was a pathetic experience. “We saw the fire burning, we tried to curb it but all our efforts could not stop the fire. Most of the cars were haphazardly parked, which made it impossible for us to move the cars away from the fire.”
Corroborating, on why the fire was out of control, another witness said: “The fire started in the middle of the night. As a result, there were few people on hand to quench it. Besides, at a time we felt we were making progress in quenching it, the combustibles in the shops catalysed the fire.”
The General Manager of the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA), in a reaction to the incident, said sensitisation on safety measures was on the rise to curb fire outbreaks in the state.