At least fifty (50) ramshackle buildings were gutted by an outbreak of fire at Olaiya, Mechanic Bus Stop off Orege in Ajegunle, a suburb in Lagos State.

The Public Affairs Officer of the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA), Mr. Nosa Okunbor, confirmed the incident on Saturday, April 18th, 2020.

Okunbor said the agency was notified of the fire outbreak via an overnight distress call on one of its emergency telephone lines about 1:55 am.

He said the fire broke out at about 1:07 a.m from a lit candle in a room belonging to one of the residents.

He said,

The fire incident occurred at Ajegunle, a suburb in Lagos with large areas made up of wooden shanties mostly occupied by people living in close quarters to each other.

The fire was reportedly ignited from a forgotten candle by one occupant of the shanty, which led to the fire engulfing the entire settlement covering approximately one acre of land.

The fire incident was put out at 3 p.m. There is no loss of lives or injuries.

He pointed out that the fire was extinguished by the combined effort of the LASEMA Response Team, the Lagos State and Federal Fire Services, thus preventing it from escalating to other buildings.

Justin Nwosu

Justin Nwosu is the founder and publisher of Flavision. His core interest is in writing unbiased news about Nigeria in particular and Africa in general. He’s a strong adherent of investigative journalism, with a bent on exposing corruption, abuse of power and societal ills.