Fire guts Visafone office in Victoria Island, Lagos

Heard this news on the radio this morning and the first thing that came to my mind was 'oh my! I hope this won't lead them to sacking even more people.

Anyway, according to the Punch:

There was pandemonium at Saka Tinubu, Victoria Island, Lagos, on Tuesday, after fire broke out at the national sales office of Visafone Communications Limited.

Although no life was lost, recharge cards and equipment, said to be worth millions of naira, were lost to the fire which lasted for hours

Although the cause of the fire could not be ascertained as of press time, firefighters told our correspondent that the fire began on the ground floor of the building.

The fire was said to have started from the vault, where recharge cards are stored.

Director, Lagos State Fire and Safety Service, Razaq Fadipe, told our correspondent that over 50,000 litres of water was used in putting out the fire.

He said the fire was difficult to put out because of the peculiarity of the building.

He said, “There was fire outbreak around 12.56pm at 33 Saka Tinubu Street, Victoria Island, which is where the national sales office of Visafone is located. We rushed down to the scene and were able to evacuate all the occupants of the building.

“Initially, we thought the fire was on the first floor because of the direction of the smoke but we later discovered that the fire was from the recharge room otherwise known as the vault. There was no water at the company so I had to get three fire trucks from Onikan, Eti-Osa and Lagos Island fire stations.