A total of four buildings have collapsed due to the intensity of fire that engulfed parts of Dosumu Market on Lagos Island on Tuesday.
Mr Ibrahim Farinloye, Lagos Territorial Coordinator, National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, told the newsmen that 14 other buildings were seriously impacted by the inferno.
Farinloye said that the cause of the fire, according to sources, was attributed to the refueling of a running generator at the market without first putting off the generator.
A preliminary report issued by the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency, LASEMA, captured the location of the incident at Dosumu Idumota Street, Jankara.
Olufemi Oke-Osanyintolu, Permanent Secretary, LASEMA said that at 11:02hrs, the Agency received distress calls via its Toll Free Emergency numbers 767/112 prompting activation of the Lagos State Emergency Response Plan.
He said that on arrival of the Lekki Response Team at the incident scene, it was discovered that a two-storey building, the structure beside it, and two other three-storey buildings behind it, were engulfed by fire at the aforementioned address.
According to Osanyintolu, the immediate cause of the inferno could not be ascertained as at the time of writing this report “as the fire had swiftly escalated to adjoining buildings within the premises”.
He said that during the Search, Rescue and Recovery Operation, after due Situation Assessment, LASEMA expanded response capacity with additional teams, manpower and equipment from Onipanu, Cappa Base and the LRU Fire Unit, no casualties, nor injuries were recorded at the incident scene, however, while putting out the fire, an adult female collapsed and was promptly attended to by the paramedics from the LRU Pre-Hospital Care Unit at the incident scene, before being moved swiftly to Marina General Hospital for medical care.
“All emergency responders present at the scene are working together and aggressively combating the fire so as to mitigate the inferno from further spreading to adjourning buildings,” Osanyintolu said.
Emergency responders at the scene of the event included the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, Federal and State Fire Services, the Nigeria Police and fire service of the Nigeria Ports Authority.
Others were LRU Pre-Hospital Care Unit and the Lagos State Ambulance Service, LASAMBUS.
