BY TINA OGBEBOR, ANGELA NKWOCHA & OLUFUMILAYO OBADINA

“Thank God it happened at night. If it had happened in the day time when lots of people were working, it would have been a disaster. There would have been commotion as people run for safety. The building housed over thirty companies”. With these words, a victim lamented the razing by fire of six-storey NASCO House, located at 29 Burma Road, Apapa, Lagos. It was alleged that the building got burnt due to electrical appliances that were not turned off at the third floor.

Mr. Chris Onu, another victim, said, “I had a company there: Obokun Express Limited. Actually, I was not there when it happened, but I heard that around 8.30 p.m., on Monday, there was a spark which resulted into fire. As the flame was going up, people still working in their offices were running helter skelter.

“Nobody took anything out. The fire started from the third floor before spreading to the rest of the building and there were generators behind the building that added to the explosion. As you can see, the building has a foxy structure. No casualty was recorded but goods worth millions of Naira were lost.

“In my office, nothing was recovered. I had a cyber cafe with computers in it and file postage. Maybe when the charred remains are cleared, we will get something. Some people still have their money buried underground. We have not seen the landlord and I learnt that the Fire Service came late in the night and after sometime they had no water and left.

“There were over 30 companies including a bank and clearing and forwarding firms. As you can see, there were six floors.”

A man who claimed to be a security officer of the bank in the ill-fated building said: “The fire incident happened around 8.00 p.m. We just saw fire from the top of the building and we were trying to see if we could put it out but everything we did was to no avail.

“The Fire Service came with several tanks of water but were unable to quench the fire because their hoses were not reaching the top at which the building was burning. So, all their water was wasted and we even took water from the gutter, just to quench the fire.

“No casualties, but so many properties were lost including those of the people who just rented apartments in the building for two years but have just used two months and some were shouting their five million, six million. I can’t really tell that this is what our bank is planning to do but as the incident occurred, we tried to secure the building so that nobody would try to take anything”.