No fewer than 20 vehicles and several of bags of rice were Thursday destroyed when fire gutted Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) Federal Operations Unit (FOU) Zone A warehouse in Ikeja, Lagos. The fire reportedly started at about 3pm.
The affected vehicles included six trailers, 12 cars and two mini-buses.
It was learned that the foreign parboiled rice, estimated at several millions of Naira, were loaded in the trucks before being gutted by the fire, which also razed a substantial part of the warehouse.
A Custom officer, who does not want his name in print, said the fire started from bush burning activity within the area where the vehicles were parked.
It took the the combined efforts of officials of the Lagos State Fire Service, Emergency management Agency, LASEMA Response Team Fire Unit and other emergency officers to fight the fire.
Director, Lagos State Fire Service, Mr. Rasak Fadipe, said his men responded swiftly to the emergency call. He said: “The warehouse was filled with over 300 vehicles of different brands. And with our efforts, we were able to save about 99 percent of the property at the scene.”
Also, Deputy Head, Lagos State Fire Service, Rasaki Musibau, suggested that the fire started from a burst cylinder which was stored under one of the burnt vehicles within the warehouse.
“From available information, the fire started from a burst cylinder stored under one of the vehicles and enhanced by the harmattan,” he added.
-Vanguard