Property
worth millions of naira were, Tuesday, destroyed when fire consumed the main
auditorium of Christ Embassy Church, located on Billings Way, Ikeja, Lagos.
When
Vanguard visited the scene, it was gathered that the fire started at 6.30pm
from an apartment which housed about 14 power generating sets.
It was
further learnt that the fire started as a result of power surge from one of the
generating sets.
Sources
said that immediately the church members noticed the fire, they tried putting
it off with their in-house extinguishers.
However,
the fire escalated and spread to the church main auditorium. The church management
declined speaking on the incident.
An
eyewitness, Mr. Oladele Akintayo, said: “Before the arrival of the emergency
teams, several property had been destroyed by the raging inferno.”
General
Manager of Lagos State Emergency Agency, LASEMA, Dr. Femi Oke Osanyintolu and
Director of Fire Service, Mr. Rasaq Fadipe, said that the fire raged for about
three hours before it was finally put out by the combined team of the emergency
agencies at the scene.
Oke
Osanyintolu said: “There is no casualty, but one of the fire service men
sustained injury. The church lost a number of power generating sets and other
property.”
According
to Fadipe, “it was a very serious fire outbreak. The fire involved the
generator house. A lot of armoured cables were also affected by the inferno.
They have about 14 big generators that were affected and the church’s
stationary diesel and petrol tanks.
“However,
with the effort of the fire service officials, we didn’t allow the tanks to
burst. And we also prevented the fire from spreading to the air conditioner
house.”
He blamed
the church for the extent of damage, saying “when my men arrived the scene,
they were restricted by the church members who wanted to take over the affairs
of putting off the fire.
“I had
four fire trucks on ground from Ilupeju, Isolo, Ikeja and Alausa with 10,000
tones of water each and 18 factory-fitted generating sets to combat the
inferno.
“The fire
involved the power house and the warehouse, where compressors were stocked. We
faced serious interference from the church members.”
Vanguard
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