Fire razes over 150 shops, shanties in Lagos

About 150 buildings were razed by fire in the Ebute Metta, Oyingbo area of Lagos state, SUNDAY PUNCH reports.

The report also states that the fire was as a result of electrical surge after power was restored.

One of the victims, Saidi Ibrahim said hoodlums working for land grabbers had threatened residents to leave the place a few weeks before. “This fire is not ordinary. Just two weeks before, hoodlums working for land grabbers have threatened us with eviction, saying the place had been bought,” he said.

Another victim, Olalomi Kazeem said, “I don’t stay here. I own a shop and sell soft drinks and food stuffs. I was called about 3am that fire was destroying apartments in the area. By the time I arrived, everything was gone. It will take a long time for us to recover from this disaster. We want the government to assist us.”

Director of Lagos state Fire Service, Rasak Fadipe confirming then incident said “We received the alert around 10.30pm on Friday and we deployed three water trucks from the Ojo, Isolo and Sari Iganmu fire stations there. It’s a shanty area and over 150 structures were destroyed. We could not ascertain the cause of the fire. We put it out about 5.30am on Saturday. There was no casualty.”