By Babajide Komolafe

Lagos— Acting Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Dr. Sarah Alade, said yesterday that no serious damages was recorded in the  fire incident that occurred at the Lagos office of the apex bank.

Addressing journalists during an inspection visit to the affected building, Alade said the fire incident did not claim any life or destroy  the records of the apex bank.

She said the fire affected the first floor of the over 50-year old building which housed the Branch Support Office and one or two administrative rooms. She added that the few files lost were minor as the bank had effective backups under its disaster recovery system.

She said that the Governor’s office was not located on the affected floor, but was located in the 22-storey new building of the bank. She added that the branch office was for the service of CBN’s stakeholders in Lagos and its environs.

She expressed gratitude to the fire services of other friendly institutions that rallied round to put out the fire, adding that the Bank would await the investigations by the Federal Fire Service as to the exact cause of the fire incident.

The fire incident which occurred on Tuesday at about 5.30pm was put out by a combined team of fire fighters from the CBN and other institutions. According to Mr Njoku Chika, Head of Fire Prevention, Federal Fire Service in Lagos the fire started at about 5.00 pm from the first floor on left wing of the five storey building. Chika said that the floor was housing the administrative department of the apex bank, stressing that the fire was put out by 5.10 pm. “Fire services from the Federal, State, UBA, Union Bank collaborated to put out the inferno.”The police and civil defence corps provided security to the areas.. No death was recorded,” Chika said.